Individuals going through severe psychiatric crisis often have the experience of feeling not heard, and often feel misunderstood. At the same time, family members often don’t get a chance to participate in their loved one’s treatment plan at the time of the crisis. With Open Dialogue therapy, the individual’s voice is valued and the family and others who care about the person in crisis are invited into the process of figuring out what would be helpful and what would not in the treatment and recovery process.
Developed in Finland by Jaakko Seikkula, Ph.D., and his colleagues, Open Dialogue is a therapy model that provides help very rapidly to people in psychiatric crisis, ideally within 24 hours, in the most supportive and non-pathologizing setting possible, ideally the person’s own home. This is done by organizing a community health system made up of a team of clinicians and by working with the individuals and families within that system. A clinical team commits to helping the individual and family find whatever resources that would be helpful, including medications or hospitalization if necessary. The team also promotes a spirit of dialogue, in which each person’s voice is valued, especially the voice of the person in crisis.Open Dialogue is beginning to come to the US, primarily through the efforts of Dr. Mary Olson, and the Institute for Dialogic Practice, which she founded and leads in Haydenville, Mass.
Dr. Christopher Gordon, a psychiatrist and the medical director at Advocates, Inc. , has led a team which has completed Open Dialogue training with Dr. Olson, and which has attempted to adapt Open Dialogue to the U.S. health care environment. Dr. Gordon will be presenting at the 2014 NAMI National Convention on Sept. 3. He recently spoke to NAMI about Open Dialogue therapy.
Photo: Jaakko Seikkula, Ph.D., Credit: The Taos Institute.
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