Will Hall

Will Hall was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent a year in San Francisco’s public mental health system. After trying medications and other treatments, Will found he was able to recover and learn to live with his difficult mental states through holistic health, nutrition, yoga, and meditation, rather than conventional treatments and diagnosis. He went on to become a leading mental health advocate who has spoken and organized internationally for mental diversity and change in systems of care.

He became a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland in July 2009.

Will is co-founder of the Western Massachusetts support and activism community Freedom Center, which offers groups and holistic alternatives such as acupuncture and yoga, and on the coordinating collective of The Icarus Project, bringing together people outside the view of disorders and illness. Will received the Disability Advocacy Award from the Center for Independent Living in Amherst MA for his work, was a featured philanthropic project by Forbes magazine, and has consulted on mental diversity in Argentina and Peru for Mental Disability Rights International. He has appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio, and was profiled in the Newsweek magazine article “Listening to Madness.” Will is host of the FM community radio show Madness Radio, and organizing a new initiative in Portland Oregon, Portland Hearing Voices.

Find out more about what Will is doing at www.willhall.net, www.madnessradio.net, and www.portlandhearingvoices.net.