The Recovery Stories Listening Chair

“If my story can throw someone a lifeline then it’s worth sharing”

These are our stories as told to each other as part of the Recovery Stories Project in 49 North Street Skibbereen.

We invite you to sit back, make yourself comfortable and have a listen.

Last year a group of us met every week for 8 weeks to learn about the art of radio documentary making. We were all in the process of recovery from mental health challenges. We told each other about some of the dark times we've experienced and how we got through them. We played music, shared our favourite tunes, drank tea, chatted and most importantly listened to each other. There was huge power in telling the stories and in being heard. We found each other's stories incredibly inspiring. Over the weeks we recorded interviews and music and worked together with documentary maker Leeanne O Donnell to make 4 short audio documentaries that captured the essence of our Recovery process. We are sharing them in the hope that they might help others who are having a hard time.

Track listing:
1) The Bull in the Field
2) The man who came back from Valhalla
3) Dancing with Debussy
4) The Blues Guy

The chair will be here all week so you can listen all at once or come back another time.

The Recovery Stories Project is a Cork Mental Health Services initiative. It is a collaboration between Open Dialogue in Bantry and 49 North Street - a space for creativity, recovery and wellbeing. The 2017 group was co facilitated by psychologist Aine Herlihy, Kevin O'Shanahan (Clinical Nurse Specialist in mental health and Arts) and documentary maker Leeanne O Donnell. The project has also been supported by Healthy Ireland.