Although Laura didn’t officially share her story as part of the original Emerging Proud campaign, she has been an ally for many years. Having liberated herself from her psychiatric label, identity and a cocktail of medications, Laura now offers services to advocate for the self-empowerment of others.
Laura’s story is one of inspiration, hope and validation that anyone can turn their pain to purpose.
I’ll be speaking with Laura very soon about her exciting new resources and upcoming autobiography: UNSHRUNK. This will be one not to miss!
Here is Laura’s journey to liberation:
About Laura:
Laura Delano is the founder and Executive Director of Inner Compass Initiative (ICI), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people make more informed choices about psychiatric drugs, diagnoses, and drug withdrawal. Separately, Laura offers psychiatric drug withdrawal support through 1-on-1 consultations and a newly launched group support program called Fortify & Focus. She has spoken and led workshops across Europe and the Americas, and her first book, UNSHRUNK, which will be published in the US, UK, and Commonwealth countries in March 2025. Find out more at www.LauraDelano.com.
All in divine timing – we got there in the end with our recorded conversation! Here, David reminds us of his powerful recovery journey, and shares what he’s been up to professionally since his story was featured in our ‘Emerging Proud through Suicide’ pocket book of hope and transformation.
From being a self-proclaimed ‘career criminal’ in Strangeways prison, to consulting on strategy in the Houses of Parliament, David explains the moving trajectory of his recovery journey.
*Trigger warning* – this interview contains some potentially activating details of suicide attempts and explicit language.
David’s Bio:
My name is David. I was born and raised in Moss Side, Manchester in the UK. I still live in Manchester today with my wife Jo. I am 59 and I am a father and grandfather. I am an integrative therapist and I also work in a drug and alcohol services supporting people to navigate their way out of active addiction and into recovery.
I am a person in long term recovery. I spent 23 years of my life in active addiction to heroin, crack and cannabis. I funded my drug use through criminal activity and I spent many years in prison as a result. On October 4th I will be 24 years clean.
I have worked in drug, alcohol and criminal justice services and also in various prisons in that time. I have also advised local and national Government on recovery and desistance from crime and I have played key roles in the development and implementation of various recovery communities around The North West of England. I have featured in books on recovery, mental health and surviving suicide.
I was chairperson of The Greater Manchester Recovery Federation which organised The UK Recovery Walk in 2014 in Manchester. Alongside his GMRF peers, he helped organize and host the walk which saw the greatest number of people come together anywhere in Europe to date (8,000) to march and to raise the profile of recovery from addiction.
I have been a keen advocate of men’s work throughout the last 22 years and I have been on a continuous journey of discovery around my own masculinity. This has involved lots of deep diving into my own personal work and more widely around what it means to be a man, how to be a healthy male role model and leader to our younger men in our society today. I am co-founder and an active member of abandofbrothers Manchester. Abandofbrothers is a national charity doing amazing work mentoring and supporting young men out of destructive patterns of behaviour and lifestyles such as gang life, knife crime and criminal activity.
My goal is to raise the profile of recovery from addiction and mental health and to help people improve their personal well-being, to breakdown stigma and to co-create a new narrative for recovery and trauma informed interventions and environments. My approach to life is based on connection with people and communities. I am of the mind that our communities are rich in resources and that people should be the co-producers of their own health and well-being. I promote connection through community networks, relationships and friendships which empower people and provide mutual help and support.
It was such a joy to reconnect with Paris to find out what he’s up to now and how his work and ideas have progressed since he appeared in the Emerging Proud film seven years ago. Here we talk about Paris’s journey from post-traumatic growth following an existential crisis, to his work as an Integrative Psychologist, interest in collective trauma-healing, and leading people to connect with the ‘more than human realm’ through deep ecology.Paris explains his needs-based ‘organismic holistic model of healing’ as an alternative to the current ‘mental health’ paradigm. We also touch on the complexities of what gets labelled as ‘spiritual bypassing’, and how the imaginal cells present in the metamorphosis process relate to the bigger picture of what is happening in the collective right now. As usual, it’s an organic flow, and we hope it might offer some helpful insights to anyone going through a transformation process.
Dr Paris Williams has traversed a very winding road in his life—going from the lows of a broken childhood to the highs of becoming an international hang gliding champion in his younger years (winning a World Champion title and numerous National Champion titles). But then in his late 20s, the wounds from his past, along with the deep wounds within human society and of the Earth that were all too apparent from his vantage point in the sky, converged to send him spinning into the vortex of a profound spiritual/existential crisis.
As he navigated through this crisis, he found solace and strength in the natural world as well as in a number of the world’s wisdom traditions, and found himself drawn into the path of “Wounded Healer.” He has since gone on to conduct research on psychosis and radical personal transformation, published the widely acclaimed book, Rethinking Madness, and received his PhD and license as a clinical psychologist, specializing in humanistic, existential, transpersonal, somatic and ecological approaches.He has worked in numerous settings supporting people struggling with challenging and extreme experiences – these include meditation centers, a residential facility, a medical hospital, a community mental health clinic, a substance dependency program, multi-disciplinary teams, and in numerous private practice settings.
Paris is currently residing in the U.S., working as an integrative psychology practitioner in private practice, providing support to individuals and families, providing supervision to other health professionals, and running various psychotherapy trainings and workshops.
Most people will know Paris from his 2012 renowned book ‘Rethinking Madness’, in which he called for the need for a paradigm shift in how ‘mental illness’ is perceived. My first interview with Paris was in 2017, where he spoke about how trauma acts as a catalyst for awakening to the non-dual interconnectedness of life, and how the bio-medical paradigm prevents a healing trajectory (see the link below to the original post).
It is now 12 years since Paris published Rethinking Madness, and we are still calling for the same changes. But has any progress been made? I will be talking with Paris again very soon to hear his thoughts about the current state of the system, his meta perspective on what it all means, an update on what he’s up to now, and his dreams for the future.
Here’s a little reminder of Paris’s story:
Dr Paris Williams has traversed a very winding road in his life—going from the lows of a broken childhood to the highs of becoming an international hang gliding champion in his younger years (winning a World Champion title and numerous National Champion titles). But then in his late 20s, the wounds from his past, along with the deep wounds within human society and of the Earth that were all too apparent from his vantage point in the sky, converged to send him spinning into the vortex of a profound spiritual/existential crisis.
As he navigated through this crisis, he found solace and strength in the natural world as well as in a number of the world’s wisdom traditions, and found himself drawn into the path of “Wounded Healer.” He has since gone on to conduct research on psychosis and radical personal transformation, published the widely acclaimed book, Rethinking Madness, and received his PhD and license as a clinical psychologist, specializing in humanistic, existential, transpersonal, somatic and ecological approaches.He has worked in numerous settings supporting people struggling with challenging and extreme experiences – these include meditation centers, a residential facility, a medical hospital, a community mental health clinic, a substance dependency program, multi-disciplinary teams, and in numerous private practice settings.
Paris is currently residing in the U.S., working as an integrative psychology practitioner in private practice, providing support to individuals and families, providing supervision to other health professionals, and running various psychotherapy trainings and workshops. You can find more about his work at rethinkingmadness.comand pariswilliamsphd.com
To recap on our first conversation, here’s the original interview:
Leah has been active in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement for almost 25 years, advocating for raised awareness around the psychiatrisation of human experience.
You may remember Leah from the original Emerging Proud film, where she shared her incredible story of liberation. You can read Leah’s full story HERE.
Leah Harris (they/she) is a mad liberationist and abolitionist based in the settler colonial US. She was born to two parents diagnosed with serious mental health conditions, and her family experienced the harm caused by the interconnected prison, psychiatric, and child welfare systems. She joined the psychiatric survivor/ex patient movement around 25 years ago and has been active in fighting force and coercion. Leah is also a writer and journalist whose work appears in Mad in America, Truthout, The Progressive Magazine, and the anthologies We’ve Been Too Patient and the forthcoming Mad Studies Reader. She’s currently at work on a memoir entitled Noncompliant which traces her family’s story alongside the story of deinstitutionalization in America and a call for psychiatric abolition. Leah is also the founder of Menopause Solidarity, a new organization providing gender-inclusive peer support and mental health education to support the menopausal transition.
You may remember our proud Emergee Leah from the Emerging Proud film – Leah certainly made an impact on me with her incredible story. Here’s a little snippet of a reminder from 2017:
I recently reconnected with Leah, and discovered that she is birthing some incredible new projects as a result of further developments in her transformation journey.
I’ll be sharing our conversation over the coming days, but until then, here’s a reminder of Leah’s back-story, and what led her to be such a leading- light in the world of the psychiatric Survivor, turned Abolitionist/ Liberationist, movement:
*Deep breath*…here we go. I’m sharing this before my logical mind tells me it’s a really bad idea…
12th May 2025 will see Emerging Proud, re-emerge, with our first live gathering since 2020!
We will ‘re-union’, find out where we all are now, including some of the international EP chapters, the projects that were seeded at the launch in 2017, and re-visit what resources are most needed for people undergoing a transformational crisis. Who’s up for the crack?
Image courtesy of Liisa Ekossari
Many of you in this community will be aware that Emerging Proud has been quite ‘dormant’ since 2020, and it’s time to be more open about why that is.
The pandemic unfortunately had a devastating impact on the charity which had seed-funded some of our projects, and that, coupled with the fact that the majority of work had been done voluntarily, led me to burn out, and everything ground to a halt. My apologies to all of you if that was disappointing. In all honesty, looking back I think I was completely overwhelmed. I had no idea what I was doing – I started a social movement with no experience and (naively) no idea where it was going to lead. As it grew and grew, and the ball gathered momentum, I felt totally out of my depth. I remember a moment when I was chatting to an anti-psychiatry ally after a conference in London, and they told me they’d just got back from an event in Israel where people were talking about Emerging Proud… it was terrifying to think I’d unleashed something that felt completely out of my control. Now that I know nothing in life is in my control, it doesn’t feel quite so daunting!
Our last in-person event was held in Jan 2020 with Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) authors Dr Lucy Johnstone and Prof Mary Boyle, the outcome of which led to an addendum being created for the PTMF about spiritual emergency (Click here to access the report from the event). The outcomes from the event are still very much needed, and exciting developments are happening regarding some of them – more on that in due course.
As we all know, there’s always a silver-lining after challenging times. The last 4 years have gifted me time and space to do more self-development work, get more grounded, and gather some empirical evidence on which to base the rationale for what Emerging Proud was already doing. And so here we are, re-emerging from another chrysalis…
This time around I want to ensure that the momentum of the movement is as sustainable and accessible as possible. One way to keep the ball rolling is setting up an online membership site to replace this website, which would enable the following:
More interaction opportunities for the EP community
An evolving vault of resources that support the emergence journey
The possibility to offer webinars / live online sharing spaces
An annual event which is free to access, making it accessible for the most marginalised
All of the Emerging Proud offerings to date have been created collaboratively with the EP community – this couldn’t happen without all of you – so if anyone has any better ideas about how we could best move forwards, please do feel free to let me know!
For now, I’m leaving you with a song that makes me think of all of you in the EP community – until we can do it again in person in 2025, feel free to have a boogie! Much love, Katie ❤
Do you remember our David? He originally shared his story of transformation in our ‘Emerging Proud through Suicide’ pocket book. David will be joining us in conversation soon to let us know where his journey has led him today. Here’s a reminder of his incredible back-story in the meantime:
David did time in Strangeways. He’s one of the most sensitive, open- hearted men I know.
Struggling with a childhood of abuse and neglect, David found distraction from his pain through thrill seeking behaviour, which led to life in gangs, drugs and crime. Following multiple suicide attempts and arrests, David continued along the same path until he was 35, choosing to live on the streets because that felt easier than going home and facing his family.
In the year 2000, David was placed on remand in Strangeways prison. He was overcome by waves of despair; he tore up his bedsheets, tied them around the bars of his cell and his neck, and started to drift off into the comforting nothingness of black out. Suddenly he found himself in a heap on the floor. The sheet had snapped. He was thrown into confusion and then the deepest feelings of despair and hopelessness that he’d ever experienced. He felt like such a failure and cried and cried for what seemed like forever. This surrender to his emotions led to an overwhelming feeling of calm and peace; he was overcome by a strange and inexplicable sense that everything was going to be ok.
He brushed himself off and sat down at the steel table to roll a cigarette. He noticed the local paper, The Manchester evening news, in front of him on the table and started reading through it. There he came across a story by a woman who had opened a local day centre for recovering addicts and alcoholics. The woman was also in recovery from addiction. David wrote her a letter asking for help.
Four weeks later he was escorted to Crown Court for sentencing. For the first time ever, David was placed before a Judge who seemed to really pay attention to David’s history of trauma rather than just focusing on the problem. David attended rehab the next day for the first time in his long life of addiction and crime. Rather than being put into psychiatric treatment, David was given access to mentors, communities, and people who could guide him due to their own experience. David now feels that finding other men who were willing to be vulnerable and openly share their emotions was invaluable.
After completing nine months in treatment, David was offered the opportunity to volunteer with the service which helped him. Twelve months later, he was offered a full-time paid role as a support worker. Six months later he was offered the role of deputy manager. Twelve months after that he became the manager. Three years later David was promoted to head of service, responsible for managing 72 rehab beds across the county. David has since managed several projects and services. He was a CQC registered manager for one of the biggest health and social care providers in the country, and is now a personal therapist and coach for others struggling on a similar path that he experienced.
My mate Dave is an inspiration. Whatever you’re going through, there is always hope.
I’ll be interviewing David about his back-story, life now, and what supported his profound transformation, for our Emerging Proud rebirth very soon!
Isn’t it fascinating that, when we hear the back-story of the most inspiring change-makers, more often than not, they’ve faced adversity in their lives, many having hit rock-bottom at some point.
Could it be that, when we know there’s nothing to lose, that’s when we dare to shoot for the stars?
When Emerging Proud was launched in 2017, inviting people who perceived their crises to have catalysed a positive transformation process, to tell their stories, the response was overwhelming.
Seven years – a film, a publishing company, six books… and hundreds of emergent stories – later, it’s time to find out where some of our Proud Emergees are now, and what inspiring things they’re up to in the world.
I was motivated by my dear friend Stephanie Mitchell to re-start the Emerging Proud conversations, to showcase just where a history of adversity can end up – if we’re privileged enough to find the right support along the way, and determined enough to create positive change for others.
So, watch this space for more inspirational voices to come…
The world is amidst a meta-crisis: what better time than now to dare to live our ****ing dreams?!
