June 2025 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
Peter Bullimore is the chair of the National Paranoia Network and is testament to how effective accepting and working with voices and paranoia can be.
Pete heard his first voice aged seven. “I heard a child’s voice telling me to keep going, that everything would be OK. It was reassuring, a bit like an imaginary friend,” he says. But as bad things happened in my life the voices increased in number, eventually turning sinister and aggressive. “They told me to set myself on fire, to slash myself and destroy myself, often 20 or 30 voices all shouting at me at once,” he says. By his mid-twenties Pete had lost his business, his family, his home, everything. “The voices just encompassed my life; I curled up in a chair and didn’t wash or eat. “I was locked in a world of voices, paranoia and depression, and it was probably the most frightening time of my life,” he says.
Pete spent more than a decade after that on heavy medication, but the voices never went away. He had to get out of the psychiatric system to recover. It was only when he came off the medication and met people who share his experiences at the hearing voices network that he was able to stop being so afraid of the voices and actually start listening to them. He changed his relationship with his voices and worked through the meaning of his voices and paranoia. He now runs his own training and consultancy agency delivering training on hearing voices childhood trauma and paranoia internationally. He is a guest lecturer at fourteen Universities in the UK. He has set up Maastricht Centre’s at the Radbone unit in Derby and the Hartington unit in Chesterfield in collaboration with Derby NHS trust; he has now launched a Maastricht Approach center in Bradford and a National Maastricht Center in Telford
“I wouldn’t want to get rid of my voices now, they’re part of me,” he says.
Join us in this gathering for an insightful exploration into the experiences of hearing voices, paranoia, and unusual beliefs. Drawing from lived experience, Peter will guide participants through the three phases of hearing voices and the three phases of paranoia, offering practical tools and perspectives for supporting individuals at each stage.
This webinar will highlight key distinctions between working with voice-hearing and paranoia, while promoting a framework that emphasizes understanding, empathy, and normalization.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Peter!
Feedback Survey/CEH Information:
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, June 26th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on July 3rd, 2025. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
May 2025 CPS & CPPS Supervisor Community of Practice
Shae (he/him) is a Two-Spirit person who is a devoted parent, husband, and community advocate. Shae’s resilience in overcoming systemic barriers and trauma has become a source of strength and inspiration to the people he serves. Shae works in the nonprofit sector serving veterans, Muslim LGBTQ2+ individuals, and many others that deal with multiple diagnosis. An artist, musician, reiki practitioner, personal trainer – Shae wears so many hats! He channels his creativity into self-expression and community building. His life has been shaped by both struggle and service, and he believes in using his experiences to uplift and support others.
This presentation explores the often-overlooked experiences of everyday grief — the emotional responses to loss that doesn’t always receive public acknowledgment that has deep personal impacts. From breakups and job loss to political disillusionment and changing life roles, grief is not limited to death. This session will unpack how grief manifests in common life transitions, how it affects our mental and physical well-being, and why it deserves space in our conversations and healing practices. Through relatable examples, psychological insights, and practical strategies, attendees will learn how to identify grief in their own lives, validate their emotional experiences, and adopt healthy coping tools. Whether you’re personally navigating change or supporting others, this presentation offers compassionate guidance for honoring loss and finding resilience in everyday life.
Feedback Survey/CEH Information:
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, June 5th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on June 12th, 2025. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
July 2022 Supervisor’s of CPS & CPPS Community of Practice:
“Peer Support Values and Documentation”
July 28th, 2022 from 1:30pm-3pm CT
Facilitator:
Victoria (Vic) Welle: Vic is peer support trainer who brings many years of experience providing peer support in diverse settings. Vic’s work experience includes community-based peer support, supervising peer supporters in a peer respite program, and working within the Comprehensive Community Services program in Wisconsin. Vic is a statewide trainer for the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative, a national trainer for Intentional Peer Support, and serves on the board of the peer-run organization Wisconsin Milkweed Alliance (WIMA).
Description:
Documentation, how do we complete this required task while holding true to our peer support values? Guest Facilitator, Vic Welle explored the topics, “Peer Support Values and Documentation,” with hope and engaged us in a broader conversation about values and advocacy around documentation on Thursday, July 28th, 2022. The Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative’s goal is to continue to provide mutually collaborative spaces where we all learn together to deepen our values in peer support while holding fidelity to the peer support framework.
We would love for you to share space with us each month, for our Communities of Practices as we will continue explore topics aligning with our work, supporting others and deepening our values. If you would like to stay informed or would enjoy receiving a reminder, please sign up to receive email updates by clicking About Us, then, scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for updates on the latest news. We hope to engage with you soon!
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, August 11th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on August 18th, 2022. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
February 2022 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice:
“‘Something’s Changed’: When Youth are Struggling (Pandemic Impact Series)” ~ February 17th, 2022 from 1:30pm-3pm CST
Guest facilitators: Carmella Glenn of WI Department of Health Services and Kaziah Anderson of Just Dane
Carmella is CPS and CPS trainer and the Peer Run Respite & Peer Services Coordinator at the Division of Care and Treatment Services. Kaziah is a CPS and CPPS and is studying Community and Nonprofit Leadership at UW-Madison, with a focus on adolescent development and the effects of parental incarceration on children and families.
Description:
Guest facilitators, Carmella Glenn, CPS, CPS Trainer and Kaziah Anderson, CPS, CPPS, will facilitate a discussion on how those in peer specialist and parent peer specialist roles can respond to better support youth and our communities. The guest facilitators will also share how those in peer support roles have done just that with community collaborators and partners at East High School in Madison, WI in recent months.
When the violence at East High School escalated to the point of police macing students, Mom’s On A Mission (M.O.M.’s) was formed by 4 mothers of EHS students, who are also alumni of EHS. These M.O.M.s began forming a group to encourage the community to come out and support the students at EHS, in order for them to feel safe and supported. Some of the M.O.M.’s who were available, along with other community members, began going to lunch everyday to support the students, and the daily violence ended.
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, March 3rd. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on March 10th, 2022. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEU credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
November 30th, 2020
Ahmad Abojaradeh of Life in My Days, Caroline Mazel-Carlton of Wildflower Alliance, and IV Staklo of Trans Lifeline facilitate a discussion on how we move peer support forward into new spaces and think in innovative ways that center our unique communities.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
