Antinormality Club is built by and for people trying to build a better world while surviving the current one.
Our work is rooted in the radical tradition of the survivor movement and the principles of Intentional Peer Support. By coming together as peers, we aim to:
Connect through our shared experiences
Telling your story is an act of resistance. Hearing another’s story is an act of love.
Antinormality Club is a place where you are invited (but not compelled) to drop your mask, share your experiences, support others, and find hope. We build relationships rooted in empathy and mutual learning, in the belief that our connections are what sustains us.
Build a collective voice for change
Navigating this system isn’t enough - we want to transform it.
Together, we’ll raise our voice to challenge narratives that harm us, like productivity culture and the dominance of the medical model. We’ll champion our value as humans and changemakers, and advocate for justice-informed mental health support.
In more detail
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In its simplest version, it’s when people use their experiences to support each other. It’s about giving and receiving - there’s no helper and helped in this relationship. We each have something to gain from being in connection with each other.
Peer support grew out of the survivor movement, but in recent decades it has been adopted (and co-opted) by mainstream mental health services, with its medical model of mental health and emphasis on social conformity.
AntiNormality Club is rooted in the original, radical intentions of peer support, which combine relational care and agitating for change. We draw on the principles of Intentional Peer Support and a range of alternative mental health traditions.
We see each other as fully human, just as we are, and we reject the pathologisation of our experiences.
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We meet online to share our experience, support each other, and explore ways in which we can change the systems that harm us.
This might look like telling our own stories, listening to others’ stories, sharing information and resources, studying together, or using creative methods to express our experiences. It might also look like working together to change mental health support in the social change sector, through raising our voices and building the case for change.
We work in line with a Club agreement, which sets out our expectations and ways of working, to help ensure the space is as brave and safe as possible.
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Nothing. Antinormality Club is not-for-profit and peer-led, and it will always be free to attend meetings.
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If you work in social change and you have experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma - yes! Find out more and join here.
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No problem. Just enter your email at the bottom of the page and we’ll be in touch with updates.
Who’s involved?
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Anna Fielding - they/them
I’m a psychiatric survivor with 20 years’ experience of working for social change. I currently work in the economic justice movement as a consultant, facilitator and coach. I’m also a trainee person-centred psychotherapist and I trained in Intentional Peer Support in 2023.
Among other things, I’m white, middle-class, disabled, queer, and owner of a cute but highly disloyal Pomeranian. I live in Birmingham and my interests include care ethics, leopard print and pizza.
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Amanda Francis - she/her
I began working with Intentional Peer Support after working as a Young Person of Colour peer support facilitator and became a trainer in 2022. I often reflect on what communities of colour and young people need, and find that peer support meets the need for mutuality, connection, and collectivism better than any clinical service I have witnessed or engaged with. I am currently completing a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. I am most passionate about accessible and culturally applicable mental health and peer support for the global majority, social justice and power, and race and gender discourse.
I also love all things creative, and am attempting to sew – because sustainability and fashion are important for me! I have a profound love for Hamilton and can eat a bag of Jelly Babies easily in one sitting watching the latest rubbish BBC true crime programme.
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Ann Don Bosco - she/her
I've been passionate about economic systems change and mental health for over 20 years now, so I'm very proud to be part of the Club! Over those years I've founded two mental health startups, worked at Google and Public Health England, and been a trustee of the Friends Provident Foundation and a Director of the Economic Change Unit.
I'm pretty curious about the world and so enjoy new experiences, learning new things and meeting new people - anything new basically! My hobbies include all the uninspiring things like watching Netflix, meeting friends and eating delicious food.
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Courtney Buckler - she/they
I’m a survivor researcher and Executive Director at Make Space, a user-led collective working toward more nuanced and generous responses to self-harm. I also recently finished my PhD in Sociology, which explored the changing landscape of mental healthcare in the UK across the past 30 years.
I’m a Mad, Queer, working-class person living in Bristol. I love making bad art, Dad jokes, snacks, and astrology. I love a list and a post-it note (Virgo rising).
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Rick Burgess - he/they
Rick is a disabled activist based in Greater Manchester, he co-founded the WOW Petition calling for a Cumulative Impact Assessment of welfare reform, he co-founded Manchester Disabled People Against Cuts and is an admin of Recovery In The Bin.
He works at the GM Coalition of Disabled People and the Lived Experience Advisory Board at the Economic and Social Research Council Centre For Society And Mental Health at King’s College. He is a contributor to the Deaths by Welfare timeline.
He is also, time, energy, and focus permitting, an artist. He is developing thinking towards Disability Equity which combines the social model of disability, mental distress, disability justice, and intersectionality.