Stories from the Room of Many Colours: Ritual and Reclamation with People Wishing to Make Changes to Drug and Alcohol Use— Deidre Ikin

In this paper, Deidre Ikin describes her work in The Room of Many Colours, the location of group conversations with people migrating from a life dominated by alcohol and drugs. Drawing on some challenging therapeutic situations, Deidre first gives an account of using a definitional ceremony to respond to a particularly painful account of trauma near the end of one group meeting. She also describes the work of one woman in preparing the Rainbow document, an ‘insider’s’ guide for mothers and child protection workers to use in determining when conditions are right for children to return home. These practice-based accounts are followed by a discussion of ethics and orientation when working in relation to substance misuse and child protection.