About the Film

View the Film Trailer

About the Filmmaker

Screening Dates & Locations

Continued Education Credit (CEU) Info

Event Flyer

To reach us with any questions about these screenings, please call (413) 539-5941 ext. 301.  Registration not required.

About the film:

In the far north of Finland, a stone’s throw from the Arctic Circle, a group of innovative family therapists have converted the area’s traditional mental health system, which once boasted some of Europe’s poorest outcomes for schizophrenia diagnoses, into one that now gets the best statistical results in the world for first-break psychosis.  They call their approach Open Dialogue.

Their principles, though radical in some ways in this day and age,  are surprisingly simple.  They meet people in crisis immediately and often daily until the crises are resolved.  They avoid hospitalization and its consequential stigma, preferring to meet in the homes of those seeking their services.  And, perhaps most controversially, they avoid the use of anti-psychotic medication wherever possible.

They also work in groups, because they view psychosis as a problem involving relationships.  They include in the treatment process the families and social networks of those seeking their help, and their clinicians work in teams, not as isolated, sole practitioners.  Additionally, their whole approach values the voice of everyone in the process, most especially the person directly in crisis.  And finally, they provide their services, which operate within the context of Finnish socialized medicine, for free.

Open Dialogue, a 74-minute documentary in English featuring Jaako Seikkula, Birgitta Alakare, Robert Whitaker, Mia Kurtti, Paivi Vahtola, and Timo Haaranaiemi, weaves together interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and journalists to create both a powerful vision of medication-free recovery and a hard-hitting critique of traditional psychiatry.

Trailer:

The the trailer for Open Dialogue via Youtube here.

About the Filmmaker:

"My basic inspiration comes from looking within.  My true self, like the true self within all of us, is a powerhouse of purity and energy.  Self-reflection has been my life’s devotion for nearly 20 years, and experience has shown me that the answers are within each of us—if we can find them."  - Daniel Mackler

DANIEL MACKLER, is a former therapist (closing his private practice in March of 2010), musician, current filmmaker and world traveller who has dedicated much of his recent years to learning about and documenting alternative ways of approaching mental health and emotional well being.  His debut film, 'Take These Broken Wings,' detailed the recovery stories of Joanne Greenberg (author, 'I Never Promised You a Rose Garden') and Catherine Penny (focus of the book, 'Dante's Cure') and has been viewed at conferences, screenings and in homes worldwide.  Daniel's next project (currently in post-production) is a film detailing the work of the Finnish Open Dialogues program and will be the final film in this Spring's Alternative Perspectives Film Series.

For more about Daniel, his film, his music and his work, please visit his website.

Screening Dates & Locations

Monday, July 11th, 10am to 12pm

Berkshire Athenaeum Auditorium

1 Wendell Ave, Pittsfield

Co Sponsored by The Brien Center and the Western Mass RLC

Monday, July 11th, 6pm to 8pm

Smith College

Seelye Room #106, Northampton

Co-Sponsored by Windhorse Integrative Mental Health and the Western Mass RLC

Tuesday, July 12th, 4pm to 6pm

Westfield Athenaeum Auditorium

6 Elm Street, Westfield

Co-sponsored by The Carson Center and the Western Mass RLC

Wednesday, July 13th, 10am to 12pm

Holyoke Community College

Kittredge Center Room #303, Holyoke

Co-sponsored by River Valley Counseling, the Holyoke Medical Center and the Western Mass RLC

Wednesday, July 13th, 2pm to 4pm

Advocates, Inc.

1881 Worcester Rd, Framingham

Co-sponsored by Advocates, Inc. and the Western Mass RLC

Thursday, July 14th, 12pm to 2pm

Metro Suburban RLC's Quincy Center

460 Quincy Ave, Quincy

Co-sponsored by the Metro Suburban RLC and the Western Mas RLC

Thursday, July 14th, 6pm to 8pm

Center for Human Development

332 Birnie Ave, Springfield

Co-sponsored by the Center for Human Development and the Western Mass RLC

Friday, July 15th, 12pm to 2pm

Central Mass RLC's Worcester Center

91 Stafford Street, Worcester

Co-sponsored by the Central Mass RLC and the Western Mass RLC

Friday, July 15th, 430pm to 630pm

Recovery Hall (behind the RECOVER Project)

One Osgood Street, Greenfield

Co-sponsored by Clinical & Support Options and the Western Mass RLC

Continuing Education (CEU) Credit Information

This program has been approved for 2 Social Work Continuing Education hours for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR. Collaborative of NASW and the Boston College and Simmons Schools of Social Work Authorization Number D 50948. 

This program has also been approved for 2 Continuing Education Contact hours for Licensed Mental Health Counselors hours by the MMCEP authorization number 11-0339.

We have also been approved for 2 Continuing Education Credits for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs) by the Massachusetts Association for Marriage & Family Therapy Therapy, Inc. Certification Number PC-09965.

Event Flyer

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