The treatment of psychosis presents unique clinical challenges to even experienced practitioners, who have to perform a delicate calculation with each client - which treatment course holds the most benefits and least risks: the symptoms themselves or the laundry list of harms caused by
medications, in-patient treatment in psychiatric care facilities, and other interventions. In most other areas of mental distress, there is a clearer way to an answer, and at a minimum, client and therapist are speaking the same language. Not so, however, when working with psychosis, which brings
profound neurological and existential impacts on the brain and mind, leading to unrecognizable behaviors, thoughts, and actions. To engage with clients in this state, Mayeda argues, requires not only training and technique, but in fact a whole new way to communicate.
The philosophy of
Listening with Psychotic Ears is a fresh and accessible way to accurately understand the expressions of a person whose brain is communicating under the influence of psychosis and facilitate a self-determined life worth living. When encountering a person who is experiencing psychosis, we are able to
enter their subjective world by accessing their cultural experiences and language by listening with our psychotic ears, just as a bilingual woman listens differently with her Spanish ears to the language and cultural context at hand. We tune in to the distinctive metaphorical speech patterns and
consider the person in his or her cultural context, using imagination and empathy to accurately understand what is being communicated.
Preface: Everything You Need to Know to Navigate this Book
Unit I - Traditional Treatment Approaches for Healing Psychosis
1. Types of Psychosis and General Intervention Approaches
2. Traumatized By "Treatment": Anthropological and Social Interactional Perspectives of the Person Who
Lives with Psychosis
3. Brief History of Iatrogenic Trauma from the Mainstream Mental Health Treatment System
4. Evidence of Unethical and Ineffective Mainstream Mental Health Treatment
5. Historically Ethical and Effective Mental Health Approaches for Healing the Distress of Psychotic
Experiences
Summary of Unit 1
Unit II - New Discoveries about the Causes and Healing Approaches of Psychosis
6. The Relationship Between Early and Severe Trauma and Psychosis
7. The Relationship Between Neurobiology and Psychosis
Summary of Unit II
Unit III - Ethical and
Professional Obligations Impact Macro, Mezzo, and Micro Levels of Treatment Delivery
8. Consumer / Psychiatric Survivor / Ex-patient (C/S/X) Movement
9. Existential and Spiritual Philosophy for Healing the Distress of Psychosis
10. Listening with Psychotic Ears Philosophy and Clinical
Skills
11. Practice-based Interventions for Engaging the Most Difficult/Impaired
12. Survivor and Self-Care for Families and Clinicians who Work with People who Live with Symptoms of Mental Illness
Summary of Unit III
Unit IV - Where Do We Go From Here?
13. Conclusion and
Future Remarks
References
Appendix A: Related Associations
Appendix B: Chapter Resources
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
Shannon Mayeda, PhD, LCSW, CRADC, is a Clinical Associate Professor of the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. Dr. Mayeda is the winner of multiple teaching awards including the USC School of Social Work's Jane Addams Teacher of the Year Award,
2008.
Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
Incorporating Acceptance and Mindfulness into the Treatment of Psychosis - Edited by Brandon A. Gaudiano
The First Episode of Psychosis - Michael T. Compton and Beth Broussard
Group CBT for Psychosis - Tania Lecomte, Claude Leclerc and Til Wykes
