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Marion Aslan
Marion is a director of crazydiamond training, and has worked internationally for the past fourteen years in mental health statutory and non-statutory organisations, developing Recovery-focused services and also as a motivational conference speaker and trainer. She has authored a number of books on Recovery and Thriving, and is vocal in her assertion that people fare best in Recovery when supported by the mental health system, family, and friends to “make sense” of their experiences of mental distress - an impossibility for most, within current psychiatric systems.
“I qualified as a teacher in the 1970’s and worked in the learning disabilities sector for many years, then went into the business arena until 1994 when I had some difficult life experiences for which I sought assistance. Being described as seriously mentally ill was not only a surprise but also quite an unhelpful concept and one that I totally refuted. I recognised that I had problems and struggled to deal with them in my own way, but became very frustrated that no one else was talking my language! This fueled my passion to work with individuals and learn more about how people recovery. I charted my own pathway to recovery and since that time have worked within mental health services as a recovery activist, training staff and clients in developing more helpful concepts and ways of supporting people.
I have repeatedly seen how people diagnosed as mentally “ill” are unheard, dismissed and often have their human rights stripped away wrongfully and unlawfully. The general public is easily persuaded by psychiatric deception which convinces society at large that this “chemical imbalance” is to be contained, controlled and managed. This is often in the format of drug regimes which are disabling, lethal and most often prevent recovery, taking the person further away from reclaiming their lives. People may be viewed as crazy when it is their life events and the actions of other people who are in fact crazy.
I find the resistance to accept that people have become distressed by life events an immoral act which I seek within EleMental to address. I firmly believe mental distress to be a human condition which has been medicalised by professionals who create within society a “sense of other” and disenfranchise often vulnerable, distressed people.”
Contact Marion marionaslan@aol.com
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