This is to let you know about an upcoming conference organised by Autism North West entitled ‘Living, Loving and Thriving with Aspergers’ with spectrum author, Rudy Simone. This is a one day conference in Manchester, for everyone interested in finding out more on female aspergers, employment and relationships. It takes place on Tuesday 29th May 2012. All enquiries should be directed to autismnorthwest@hotmail.com. For more information, please click here.

This is to let you know about an upcoming event in London called "Light on Paranoia - A Free One Day Conference. Living with, and recovering from, paranoia and overwhelming beliefs" on Monday 27th February 2012, from 10-4.30pm at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. For more information please click here. Here is the information from Mind in Camden:

You are invited to a FREE one day conference to celebrate the launch of our new three year project to develop a network of peer support groups for people struggling with paranoia and overwhelming beliefs. This exciting and unique event will combine talks and workshops from renowned speakers such as Peter Bullimore, Rufus May and Dolly Sen. It will include stories of recovery, innovative approaches to working with paranoia and plenty of ideas to take home on how to cope with, and recover from, distressing experiences. It is open to service users, survivors, carers and clinicians. Please book your place. E: lhvn@mindincamden.org.uk or T: 020 7625 9042 and ask for John or Dolly .

We would like to thank Moira Bonar and Julie Gurr for sending us a cheque for £286 for Soteria Bradford. This was collected at the funeral of Moira's son Brodie who was only 22 years old. The following was read out at the service:

'The last few years were an extremely difficult time for Brodie due to mental health problems. Although he tried to hide it, he was in a lot of torment and pain, and was let down by a system whose only answer was to force him to be constantly medicated, which Brodie found extremely difficult due to side effects that took away his quality of life. All his choices were taken away from him and he was left no hope for the future'

This is to let you know about an up and coming workshop, on 16th and 17th January 2012, entitled "Reaching Contact Impaired People: An Introduction to Prouty's Pre-Therapy" which will be facilitated by Dion Van Werde, who is a Belgium psychologist and supervisor of the Flemish Association for Person-Centred/Experiential Psychotherapy. The workshop is being organised by the Metanoia Institute. You can find further information about the workshop here.

Our upcoming conference "Alternatives Within and Beyond Psychiatry" on 11th November is proving to be popular, but due to the size of the venue there are still places available, so if you are interested, do have a look at our conference page. Bookings can be made through this page.

Full details of the Soteria Network conference in Derby in November are now on our conference page, including abstracts of keynote presentations, details of workshops, and biographies of those presenting. There are still some places available for the conference. To find out more and to book places, please click here.

In August this year Darren O'Brien and others will be setting out from South Derbyshire to Hebden Bridge along the High Peak and Pennine Cycle trail to raise money and awareness for two projects that support mental well-being and recovery for those most affected by mental distress. Darren is still looking for corporate sponsorship or the loan of equipment such as panniers, and companies can buy sticker space on his bike at £5 each. 100% of the proceeds Darren raises will be shared between the Network for Change Resource Centre in Leicester and the Soteria Bradford Project. To support this event you can donate online here. For more information on the event please click here.

Soteria Bradford are starting to run workshops for people who are interested in volunteering to work in their project as well as others who are interested in the Soteria and Windhorse approaches. The first workshop will take place on Saturday 2nd July 2011. To find out more about this workshop and to book a place, please click here.

A new local Soteria Network group has started up in Brighton over the last few months, and there is now a Soteria Brighton webpage on our website, under the 'local groups' section here. If you would like to get involved with the Brighton group there is a form that you can complete (which can be accessed through the Soteria Brighton page) on which you can indicate how you would like to be involved.

Details of the Soteria Network conference 'Alternatives Within and Beyond Psychiatry' in Derby on November 11th 2011 have now been finalised. For more information, and to book places at the conference, please click here.