Open Dialogue Meeting Iceland 2026

07/09/2026

Maria Ingström in conversation with Auður Axelsdóttir

In this conversation, Swedish physician and author Maria Ingström sits down with Auður Axelsdóttir, co-founder of Hugarafl, to talk about Maria’s extraordinary journey from medical student, to psychiatric patient, and eventually back to practising medicine.

At the age of 25, during her final year of medical school, Maria experienced an altered state of consciousness that was diagnosed as psychosis. She was subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment, including prolonged restraint, heavy medication and ECT. Looking back, Maria describes not only the experience of psychosis, but the profound impact of the way she was treated within the psychiatric system.

Maria and Auður discuss coercion and human rights in psychiatry, the importance of listening to a person’s life story, the role of family and relationships in recovery, psychiatric medication and tapering, and what can happen when treatment focuses on diagnosis rather than the person and their context. Maria also reflects on what helped her find her way back: her family, relationships, being seen as the person she was beyond her diagnosis, and having a meaningful life and identity to return to.

Today Maria is a specialist in family medicine and the author of the award-winning memoir Restrained: A Doctor’s Journey Through Psychosis, Recovery, and the Search for Compassionate Care. Her experience on both sides of the psychiatric system has led her to advocate for more humane, relationship-based approaches to mental health care.

The conversation was recorded in Iceland during the 2026 Open Dialogue Meeting - 30th international meeting in dialogical and reflective approaches in treatment of psychosis.

In this conversation, Swedish physician and author Maria Ingström s...

01/09/2026

This beautiful group of people visited Hugarafl today and we hand a rich dialogue about life, recovery, togetherness, equality and democracy and more. Guests from Australia, US, Finland, Germany, Brazil, Argentina visited us and we are very thankful for the interest and sharing and hopefully we will see you all again❤️❤️

31/08/2026

Dear friends,

As we look back on these extraordinary days together in Iceland, there is one thing we want to say above all:

Thank you.

Thank you for coming.
For listening.
For speaking honestly.
For asking difficult questions.
For sharing your knowledge, your experience, your uncertainty and your hope.

The Open Dialogue meeting has never simply been about presentations, methods or professional expertise. At its heart, it is about something much more human: what becomes possible when we truly meet one another, when every voice matters, and when we are willing to stay in dialogue even when there are no simple answers.

Over these days, that spirit was everywhere.

It was in the conversations during the sessions and around the tables. It was in the laughter, the emotion, the quiet moments, the disagreements, the new connections and the stories people trusted one another enough to share.

People came from different countries, professions, services, communities and life experiences. Some came with decades of expertise. Others came with deeply personal experience of mental health services. Some came to teach, some to learn, and most of us discovered that we were doing both.

That is what made these days so special.

For Hugarafl, hosting the 30th International Meeting in Dialogical and Reflective Approaches in Treatment of Psychosis in Iceland has been an enormous privilege.

Our organisation was founded on the belief that change begins when people are listened to, when lived experience is valued as knowledge, and when we stop talking about people and start talking with them.

These days reminded us why that still matters.

We leave this meeting inspired — but also challenged.

Because the real meaning of a gathering like this is not only what happens while we are together. It is what we carry home with us.

A different question.
A different conversation.
A little more courage to listen.
A willingness to include the person who is too often left outside the room.
A belief that mental health care can be more human, more equal and more hopeful.

If even a small part of what happened here travels back into our communities, workplaces, services, families and relationships, then these days will continue far beyond Iceland.

To everyone who presented, facilitated, volunteered, organised, supported, travelled, participated online or in person, shared lived experience, asked questions, challenged ideas and helped create this extraordinary gathering:

You made it what it was.

We hope you leave Iceland with new connections, new questions, renewed energy — and perhaps the feeling that none of us has to create change alone.

Thank you for trusting us with these days.

Thank you for being part of this community.

And wherever we meet again, may we keep the dialogue open.

With deep gratitude and warmth,

From all of us at Hugarafl
Iceland

29/08/2026

Lovely Saturday!

28/08/2026

Lovely morning behind us!

27/08/2026

Today was a significant day for the Open Dialogue community.

Participants at the 30th Annual Open Dialogue Meeting gathered to watch the live announcement of the ODDESSI trial results—the largest study of Open Dialogue ever conducted.

Following the press release, Jaakko Seikkula and Auður Axelsdóttir sat down for a discussion on the significance of these findings.

Together, they discuss the ODDESSI trial results, their significance for Open Dialogue, and what these findings may mean for the future of mental health care.

Jaakko Seikkula is one of the key developers of Open Dialogue, an innovative approach to responding to mental health crises that was developed in Western Lapland during the 1980s and 1990s.

Auður Axelsdóttir is the co-founder and director of Hugarafl and Iceland's only certified Open Dialogue trainer.

We are delighted to share their conversation with you.

Link to an article about the ODDESSI Trial in comment below.

Today marked an important milestone for the Open Dialogue movement....

27/08/2026

Pics from yesterday!

27/08/2026

Loving this Thursday! The people behind the scenes!

27/08/2026

Introducing the OPEN DAY for ALL tomorrow!