What Benefit Will I Get From Taking The Class?
This class will provide you with a safe and supportive space to learn the tools of family mental health recovery including: Sharing stories for the purposes of connecting and healing, learning from people who have recovered from psychiatric labelling and extreme emotional states, deepening our understanding of the continuum of mental health and distress, harnessing the power of hope, using a strengths based approach in communication, ways to stay connected during psychosis, setting healthy personal boundaries, and celebrating recovery stories.
Who Is The Class For?
The class is designed to create support and connection between individuals and families, offer skill building tools, and inspire both hopefulness and a critical perspective on the biomedical model of mental illness. This class was written with family members in mind, but is also applicable to individuals with lived experience, friends, peer specialists, mental health care providers, community members—anyone who is interested in creating and supporting emotional health and wellbeing. Offered several times per year, the Recovering Our Families online class has helped over 1000 families from all over the world to find greater peace and connection.
How Is The Class Delivered?
This course has eight modules delivered over an 8-week period. Two or three lessons are posted each week. Lessons are delivered to participants email inboxes, as well as posted on the privacy-protected course page for discussion. Lessons include a combination of downloadable worksheets, lively discussions, audio files, research, questions for self reflection, videos, artwork, photography, and more. Participants are encouraged to dialogue about their feelings, observations, and responses to class materials.
Who Wrote and Facillitates The Class?
Krista MacKinnon specializes in mental health recovery education, curriculum development, group facilitation and community organizing. Her work is informed by her own lived experience of recovery from a bipolar diagnosis. She has worked with families from a recovery perspective since 2003 in both Canada and the USA and has delivered and developed extensive training for mental health organizations across North America and Australia. She has a diploma in social service work, and holds certificates in mindfulness based cognitive therapy, solution focused counselling, psychosocial rehabillitation, and yoga teaching from a therapeutic perspective. You can learn more about Krista via Linkedin.
Alongside her in the classroom are four compassionate and wise volunteers, all of whom have been personally affected by emotional distress and psychiatric labelling.
Classes are offered to the general public 6X per year. They always begin on the 15th of the month. Start dates happen in January, March, May, July, September, and November. You can register at any time and be placed in the next available class start date.
Organizations purchasing tuition in bulk for private classrooms can create classrooms depentent on thier timelines and needs.
Recovering Our Families Online Class Start Dates
Winter
- January 15th
- March 15th
Spring
- May 15th
Summer
- July 15th
Autumn
- September 15th
- November 15th
I work for a large mental health organization/hospital and would like to use your curriculum. How do I access it?
Licencing arrangements are available as well as bulk distribution prices for organizations wishing for private classrooms for their staff and clients. If you work for an organization and would like to discuss how this works, please contact Krista MacKinnon.
Do I need to be technologically savvy?
All you need is an Internet connection, and the time to read and discuss the recovery materials available online. If you are comfortable with email, you will be able to figure out how to participate in this course. Also, if there are any questions at all, you can ask for support. We’re friendly!
What makes this course special?
This curricula is rooted in the expertise of The Family Outreach and Response Program in Toronto, the first mental health organization internationally to develop curricula for families offering an alternative perspective to the biomedical model of what gets diagnosed as mental illness. Not only is the curriculum unique in its family strengths-based recovery orientation, it is also unique in being a pioneer in creating safe, private online spaces where families, individuals in recovery, and mental health providers can come together as co-learners to explore the powerful concepts, feelings, questions, and challenges of mental health.
Will I be able to apply the learning?
Survey responses from prior course participants show a measurable and positive shift in attitudes, behaviours and family culture as a result of participation in this course. Survey outcomes showed that participants experienced increases in:
- Confidence communicating with family members in emotional distress
- Capacity to manage personally challenging emotions
- Ability to inspire hope within self and others
- Understanding and empathizing with the mental distress experience
- Feeling supported by peers
When the class is finished, you'll be invited into the private alumni network to stay connected with the other participants for an additional 44 weeks, giving you many opportunities to get support to continue to apply the learning into the life of yourself and your family.
Is this backed by research? 
We are builing our evidence base still, but preliminary research/evaluation on the program indicates a high degree of effectiveness of the program. If you're curious to read more about the quantitative research, we've published a paper for you to view here. If you're interested in a published paper on qualatative research on the program, you can find that here.