Origin Story:
Having met on the first 3-year Finnish style Open Dialogue training to take place outside of Finland, Iseult and Rai began to share thoughts and ideas on how they might create a learning space that helps people both get an embodied sense of being in dialogue and create the practices that facilitate dialogical work in their own context.
Both having a strong affiliation for the Hearing Voices Movement and related approaches that question ‘top down’ ways of knowing, they were keen to integrate survivor wisdom and experience into dialogic training. This wish culminated in developing and delivering the first Open Dialogue one year Foundation Training Course with 50/50 expert by experience/expert by profession input. This is something they hope will be the norm in the not-so-distant future.
Rather than imposing dialogical ways of working, they aim to help people explore what is possible and what is needed in their country, culture and context.
About Iseult:
Iseult is a Clinical Psychologist and international Open Dialogue Trainer/Supervisor with the added perspective of a family member and a survivor of trauma. She was the Clinical Lead of the Irish Open Dialogue Implementation in West Cork, which she helped to set up in 2012.
Iseult has taught and supervised on a range of Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology Training at universities in Ireland and the UK. For the last 15 years she has been facilitating the development of Open Dialogue implementations internationally (from NHS UK to Denmark, Italy, Australia and China among many) through foundation and advanced trainings, service design and practice supervision. She is passionate about the cocreation of Open Dialogue and dialogic spaces in mental health services and communities.
She is driven by a belief we can do better in how we meet each other in our mental health crises, and fuelled by the inspiration of seeing what can happen when we try.
About Rai:
Rai Waddingham is an Open Dialogue Practitioner, international trainer. She has experience of creating, establishing and managing innovative peer support-based projects in a range of contexts, including youth, prison, forensic, inpatient and community.
Rai has personal experience of hearing voices, psychosis, trauma, self-harm and hospitalisation. She blends knowledge gained through Lived Experience with that of practice and training.
Prior to undertaking the 3-year Open Dialogue training in London, Rai had over 10 years of experience of facilitating dialogic spaces in the Hearing Voices Network. As a trainer, Rai has facilitated courses and workshops in many countries including the UK, Bosnia, USA, Serbia, Czech Republic, Israel and Australia. She has co-facilitated and co-coordinated a number of Open Dialogue practitioner trainings in the NHS and abroad. She regularly supervises Open Dialogue teams and has had a role in supporting innovative implementations. Rai is engaged in research and is currently completing a PhD in the knowledge gained through Lived Experience of Mental Distress at Nottingham Trent University.
Find Out More
Find out more about our offerings – the menu of services Dialogue (R)Evolution provides. This includes Open Dialogue training, supervision and consultation.
View our upcoming Open Dialogue training