Freedom Center News
Submitted by admin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 19:59.
Freedom Center is going strong!
After more than 9 years of fast-paced activism focus, Freedom Center is going strong -- and evolving. We're concentrating on our community support and wellness programs these days: support groups, yoga, writing, and acupuncture. We're also continuing to co-sponsor Madness Radio and we collaborate with the Recovery Learning Community and the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition.
Submitted by lee on Sat, 01/23/2010 - 22:19.
We are concerned about a legislation that is trying to create universal mental health screenings.
Who will get screened? Why will they get screened? What will happen if they get diagnosed? Are there
other ways to support struggling postpartum mothers?
Submitted by admin on Mon, 01/18/2010 - 01:54.
Thank you Judi Chamberlin for all your inspiration, your years of friendship and support for Freedom Center, and the inspiration you have given the survivor movement.
Judi passed away. She recently wrote:
I don't believe in an afterlife; I think when I die it will just be a return to the same nothingness as before my birth. I believe that the only 'afterlife' is the way one lives on in people's memories, and it has been so gratifying to me to hear from so many people who appreciate the work I've done and the positive effect I've had on their lives. So I feel confident that I will live on in the memories of many, many people, and that thought gives me great comfort.
http://www.freedom-center.org/we-love-you-judi-chamberlin
http://knowledgeisnecessity.blogspot.com/2010/01/judi-chamerlin-requiem-for-hero.html
Submitted by lee on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 17:25.
Choose from massage, acupuncture, cranial sacral, reiki, herbal and ayurvedic medicine and simultaneously be supporting a free, poor people's radical wellness clinic forming in Pittsburg!
Submitted by lee on Tue, 08/25/2009 - 19:20.
In response to the ABC Primetime show on Mad Pride, WE QUESTION THESE POINTS:
POINT A: “Be proud of your trendy disease! (Is that really what we’re trying to say?)
POINT B: Without forced psychiatric interventions and psychiatric drugs, we’ll have more “violent crazy” people.
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/24/2009 - 14:36.
'Mad Pride' Activists Say They're Unique, Not Sick
For Some, Psychiatric Conditions Are 'Mad Gifts' to Be Cherished, Not Medicated
"...Groups like The Freedom Center in Northampton, Mass., or The Recovering Learning Community in Holyoke, Mass., offer alternative treatments for those with mental illness. Activities include acupuncture, massage, and peer-to-peer support."
Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/18/2009 - 17:13.
I'm Leah Harris, co-coordinator of the U.S. Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (USNUSP), a newly-formed network seeking to use the language, framework, and principles of international human rights to end violations against users and survivors of psychiatry and to promote voluntary and compassionate alternatives to the traditional mental health system.
Submitted by lee on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 16:39.
We have recently received over $1000 worth of donations! We have so much gratiude for the people keeping us going right now! Yet, The Freedom Center is still in a semi-urgent place. In several months we will be receiving our annual grant of $2,500 from the city of Northampton that will help us maintain our programs and we may currently re-applying for our annual grant from the Resist foundation. Right now however, we do not have much in our bank account. Head to our Donation page or go to our Cause on Facebook to make a tax-deductible donation: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/288347
Submitted by admin on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 09:11.

Newsweek magazine just did a big story on Mad Pride and The Icarus Project, profiling Freedom Center co-founder Will Hall.
Check it out on the Newsweek site here; view a .pdf of the magazine here; and you can also take a look at the art gallery they put together here. And feel free to leave comments and join the discussion on the Newsweek site.
Submitted by lee on Sun, 03/29/2009 - 13:51.
Yet again, the city of northampton has recognized the valuable services that Freedom Center has provided and has given the Freedom Center additional funding to keep our programs going. The city of Northampton awarded the Freedom Center $2,500 towards helping to maintain our weekly writing group, acupuncture clinic, yoga classes, and support group. All of these programs take place in Northampton and are free and open to the public and therefore provide lots of benefit to northampton residents.
Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 13:17.
Every Tuesday now, 4:30 to 6 PM at the Recovery Learning Center, 187 High St., Suite 303, Holyoke MA
Hearing Voices groups are popular and fairly widespread in Europe, especially England. Hearing Voices groups do not pathologize the experience of hearing voices or experiencing other altered states, instead they ask the voice hearer: What do the voices mean to you? Join us to get support from others with similar experiences! Co-sponsored by the Center for Human Development, RLC and the Freedom Center.
Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 13:47.
Congratulations Gail!
Agnes’s Jacket A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness Gail A. Hornstein
Reading and Book Signing Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA March 26 • Thursday • 7 pm
Today, in a vibrant underground network of “psychiatric survivor groups” all over the world, patients work together to unravel the mysteries of madness and help one another recover. Optimistic, courageous, and surprising, Agnes’s Jacket (on sale starting March 17; $25.95; Hardcover) takes us from a code-cracking bunker during World War II to the church basements and treatment centers where a whole new way of understanding the mind has begun to take form.
“Agnes’s Jacket takes readers on a mesmerizing journey ... Every page is animated by Hornstein’s curiosity, her candor, and her evident empathy for those who have bravely welcomed her into their lives.” Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America
Free and open to the public. Call (413) 534-7307 to reserve a space. If you can’t attend, a signed book can be reserved for you.
Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 10:34.
Freedom Center organizer Caty Simon is attending the Community Activation Network's Community Power Kickoff to represent us and would like other Freedom Center members & people interested in the mad movement to join her. The event is on DATE CHANGE March 28th at Hampshire College. 12-6PM--you'll be directed by signs as soon as you get there showing you specifically where to go. Here's a quick summary of the event.
Submitted by admin on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 01:16.
The solicitation ordinance, which if passed would have de facto criminalized panhandling in most of downtown Northampton, has been withdrawn by the mayor's office & the police department from the Northampton city council'sconsideration and is "tabled indefinitely".
Submitted by chaya on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 14:54.
yoga cancelled Monday 2/5, 2/9, 2/12 and 2/16
Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 14:21.
Hi everybody, our monday acupuncture clinic will be postponed on February 9th 2009, as Barbara our acupuncturist has another engagement. Sorry for the inconvenience, we'll be back on our regular schedule monday Feb 16th as usual. Instead, take some time out of your day and meditate, you'll be glad you did!
Submitted by admin on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 12:01.
John Brodie was a Vermont man who died in an encounter with Brattleboro police in 2006 after neighbors called 9-11. At 36, John was already a Princeton PhD and world-reknowned physicist widely published in scientific journals. He was also a psychiatric abuse survivor, whose non-ordinary mental states were repeatedly met with force in hospitals. On the night of his death, he was not violent or suicidal, but was behaving in a strange way -- knocking on doors at 11pm. Confused neighbors called the police, which escalated a harmless situation into a tragedy. John ran away, terrified of the police, and went into the freezing river.
John's close friend Inez Kochius, a longtime Freedom Center supporter, was working with Freedom Center to try to support and care for John in the months before this tragic event cut John's life short. Inez shares her thoughts and feelings three years afterwards, in a society that has still not learned basic lessons of kindness towards mental difference.
Inez writes "To me John did not accidentally drown, he was driven into the water -- by all of us."
Read the Rutland Herald story about John Brodie.
Go to the Freedom Center page for more about John.
(drawing below by Charlotte Clarke)
Submitted by lee on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 00:13.
Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?
Submitted by caty on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 11:38.
Freedom Center is organizing a spring Speak Out and we want your help! Join slam poet and mental health activist Leah Harris from DC, Caty Simon, Lee Hurter and others. We need speakers and volunteers for this upcoming event -- get in touch with caty(at)freedom-center(dot)org.
Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 09:58.
Judi Chamberlin is one of the shining lights of the psychiatric survivor movement, working her whole life as a pioneer and leader who has never backed down or compromised. We just got this email from organizer Sylvia Caras of People Who, about Judi's health and her request that people be in touch with her.
If you've ever read the movement classic On Our Own, heard Judi's speech, or had a chance to hang out with her at a Freedom Center event or anywhere, or you just support her vision and presence, please email Judi and send some love. Don't be shy! Just email her! She is a strong Freedom Center ally and friend and wants to hear from you. chamjudi (at) aol (dot) com
You can listen to a Madness Radio interview with Judi here, and get a sense of her fierce and compassionate voice for change.
Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 22:00.
Support group facilitator Jenna Wikler will be convening a special support group on Dec. 25th, Christmas night -- Please bring food and drink to share, and a special warm thanks for Jenna's work.
|