Healing the Distress of Psychosis by Shannon Mayeda, Paperback | Indigo Chapters

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 bymedications, 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 bringsprofound 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 experiencingpsychosis, 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 distinctivemetaphorical speech patterns and consider the person in his or her cultural context, using imagination and empathy to accurately understand what is being communicated. | Healing the Distress of Psychosis by Shannon Mayeda, Paperback | Indigo Chapters