The alternative treatment model of Soteria helps people suffering from altered states without relying on medication or coercion.
In this upcoming webinar, (Saturday, February 22, 6 – 8pm GMT) panelists from Soteria projects will describe the Soteria approach to treatment and what makes it so effective. They will also recount the history of Soteria houses and share details about Soteria Vermont, the formerly operating Soteria Alaska, and current efforts to create Soteria Las Cruces. Finally, panelists will discuss what it will take to expand the availability of Soteria houses in the US and make this option a possibility for all.
The Soteria model relies on personal relationships, interactive activities, and minimal use of psychiatric medication within a comfortable “living community” as opposed to a conventional psychiatric setting. Research from the original Soteria House pointed to positive outcomes, such as benefits related to psychopathology, work, social functioning, and discontinuation of psychiatric medication.
Single Ticket: $10 USD. Funds will support Mad in America’s work as a non-profit organisation. We understand that not everyone can afford the expense at this time. Please type in the code soteria for a free ticket as needed.
Ask a Question: If you’d like to submit a question for the panel, please email it to [email protected] at least 48 hours prior to the start of the event. We will review all questions and choose those most relevant to the audience and topic. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions during the discussion. Thank you!
About the Panelists
Al Galves is a psychologist in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is a past President of MindFreedom International and a past Executive Director of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry. He is part of a group that is creating a Soteria house in Las Cruces. He is the author of Harness Your Dark Side (New Horizon Press, 2010).
Susan Musante, MS, LPCC helped develop and was the founding director of Soteria-Alaska, a model that is highly effective for people who experience what most of us label as psychosis and uses people with similar experiences as supports. As the first full time director of CHOICES, a peer-led alternative to conventional outpatient treatment, she helped develop the peer work force in Alaska. She is an educator and advocate for voluntary, informed, compassionate supports that work. Her consulting activities focus on training and program development for recovery-directed, peer-provided alternatives. Susan has worked in universities, community-based centers and consumer-run services. She has educated peer practitioners and masters level practitioners. She has numerous presentations and publications and recently was invited to speak at the International Society for Psychosocial Approaches in Helsinki, Finland and the New Mexico Behavioral Health Social Services Conference in Albuquerque. Her commitment is to respecting the “lived experience” and supporting recovery and whole health.
Gene Larkin was directly involved in Soteria House, first as a volunteer and then as staff. He left Soteria House to go to San Francisco to help establish Diabasis, a similar, Jungian based treatment program, with renowned Jungian Psychiatrist, John Weir Perry. In 1974 He was brought back by Alma Menn, the Director of the Soteria Project and Loren Moher, Director of the Center for the Research of Schizophrenia at NIMH, to establish and become the Program Director of Emanon, the NIMH-funded replication study of Soteria House. In 1976, he was brought into The Phoenix Programs in Contra Costa County, in the Bay Area, to help them convert their existing residential programs into this more humane and effective treatment model. In 1978 he became Clinical Director for all of Phoenix Programs and acted as advisor to several new, culturally specific, programs. These programs included Nyumba Chuki, a residential treatment program for African Americans in Richmond, Ca. and Casa Cecilio Chi, a residential treatment program for Latinos in San Pablo, CA.
Gene is a member of various non-profit organizations focused on supporting and promoting the Soteria Model and is currently working on establishing a Soteria House in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In addition, his personal memoir, Seeking Soteria, Being in Process, regarding his experience at Soteria House and what led him there, is scheduled to be published this year.
Katie Bourque (she/her) has been engaged in non-profit work for the last fifteen years and has been managing innovative projects and programs for the last nine years. Katie’s passions are decarcerating care, harm/risk reduction, cognitive liberty, and centering the voices of folks with lived experience. Katie has experienced the power of mutuality and collective healing with peer support. She has worked with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals for over a decade in prisons, hospitals, and in the community. Katie has experience in numerous residential settings, including as Soteria Vermont’s director for many years and more recently the Rosewood Cottage Peer Respite in Vermont, which opened in fall 2024. Katie was in a leadership role in the psychedelic peer support space for a year and is particularly interested in Ibogaine as a tool for folks struggling with opiates. She has been offering consultation in Iceland for two years and is currently serving as faculty (and is a former fellow) of Yale University’s Lived Experience Transformational Leadership Academy for Iceland’s 2025 cohort. Katie identifies with an array of lived experiences, including: psychiatric labels, trauma, personal and relational substance use, parental incarceration, and loved ones attempting and dying by suicide. Katie aspires to reform systems that perpetuate oppression and to create inclusive and dynamic community spaces.
About the Host
Robert Whitaker is the author of four books, and coauthor of a fifth, three of which tell of the history of psychiatry. In 2010, his Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness won the U.S. Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. He is the founder of madinamerica.com, a website that features research news and blogs by an international group of writers interested in “rethinking psychiatry.”
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