ISPS-US Community Chat April

ISPS-US’s membership is a diverse group of dynamic change-makers that includes advocates, service providers, people with lived experience, family members, and more. We know that to make change we have to work together to share and build upon our collective wealth of experience and knowledge. ISPS-US is therefore introducing monthly “community chats” for which all members of ISPS-US are invited. We hope to get to know each other better, share ideas, create action plans and build community, in these friendly and informal open meetings.

Each meeting will be hosted by a member of the ISPS-US Executive Committee and/or staff.  The agenda will be open, meaning we will discuss any topics related to ISPS-US and its mission that may be brought up by those who attend.  This could include ways to build a social movement toward more psychological and social understandings, educational and career considerations, the intersection of lived experience, family, and professional perspectives, organizational issues within ISPS-US, or many other topics.

Depending on the Executive Committee or staff member who will be hosting each month, they may also have additional topics to offer up for questions or discussion, based on their specific areas of interest and expertise.

We anticipate these meetings will be small enough to allow sufficient time for individual participation and interesting discussion.
 

April Facilitator: Marie Brown, PhD

Bio: Marie Brown, PhD (she/her)  is an activist, writer, and  licensed clinical psychologist working in the community/public mental health system in New York City. She completed her PhD at Long Island University Brooklyn, predoctoral internship at Bellevue Hospital, and postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. She is the co-editor of Women & Psychosis: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge) (with Marilyn Charles); Emancipatory Perspectives on Madness: Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Dimensions (Routledge) (with Robin Brown) and the forthcoming, Psychosocial Approaches to Negative Symptoms in Psychosis (Oxford) (with Tania Lincoln and David Kimhy). She is currently working on a book on feminist approaches to psychosis and the female fertility cycle (menstruation, menopause, pregnancy) for Routledge’s Women & Psychology book series.  An active member of ISPS-US for almost a decade, she has served multiple roles during that time including current Vice President and past newsletter editor, as well as on several committees including the Student and Early Career Committee; Award Committee; Membership Committee; and multiple annual conference committees (2016, 2017, 2018,2019, 2020, 2023). Her interests lay at the intersection of Women’s Studies, spirituality, and transformative mental health praxis. An original co-founder of Hearing Voices NYC, she holds a deep commitment to peer support and prompting the inclusion/leadership of people with lived experience across all roles of the mental health system—research, clinical, and policy. 

Suggested conversation topics:

How to we build community in ISPS-US?

What ways can we deepen our connection to one another in ISPS-US? 

How can we build bridges between people with lived experience, family members, and professionals by training?

How would you like to see ISPS-US grow?