Oryx and Will represented Freedom Center at the annual Alternatives conference, held this year in Portland Oregon. More than 600 consumer/survivor/ex-patient/diagnosed/labeled/people with extreme states (or whatever jargon you want to use) gathered from all over the country for a wide variety of workshops.

Lack of even mentioning the word 'medication' or 'pharmaceutical companies' or 'forced drugging' in any official event might be attributed to the funding of the conference by the federal govt, but despite this conservatism, it was a great gathering with powerful undercurrents of radical challenges to the status quo. Hundreds of conference goers joined a memorial vigil for James Chasse, a psych labeled Portland man beaten to death by police without cause or provocation just days before the conference started. Freedom Center teamed up with Mindfreedom with an Action Space devoted to activist strategies on system change. Oryx helped present with pat Risser on Men and Trauma, and Will and Oryx joined Rene Anderson and others on a panel about Building Trauma-Informed Bridges Across Disability Groups. A highlight was visiting Dave Burns and Vikki Gilbert, original freedom center founding organizers who recently moved to Oregon (stay tuned for interviews with vikki and dave for the radio show). The weather was gorgeous.

You can listen to Oryx's talk on organizing the Access to Equality Coalition here:
www.freedom-center.org/radio/OryxTraumaCrossDisabilAltern06.mp3

and Will's talk on healing trauma with body awareness (new territory for Will's talks!) here:
www.freedom-center.org/radio/WillHallTraumaAndTheBody.mp3