Psychiatry has established a professional vocation, and a powerful oligarchy, which purports to explain to people the meaning of their experiences. This is done by attributing unusual, remarkable, enlightening or socially disturbing experiences, to abstract notions of 'mental illness' or 'mental disorder'.  It is self-evident that people own their experience. Although others may frame views of their perception of the experience of others, only the person can ever come to know what such experiences really mean - in the context of their whole life.

This is an old form of human wisdom - one that has been dislodged by the vain ambitions of modern psychiatry, psychology and psychology, each of which aims to reduce human experience to its commonly-occurring elements. However, human experience may not be elemental. Instead, it may be peculiar, magical, transformative and communicative. The lived experience is the medium through which we receive the important messages about our life and its meaning. Given that it is 'our' experience and 'our' life, it seems axiomatic that 'we' - the owners of those experiences - should be charged with reading, interpreting and disentangling the myriad messages embedded in our life experience. This is rarely easy, and often can be emotionally and spiritually demanding. This is not to say that we should undertake this work on the story of our lives, alone.

When people feel that they are being overwhelmed by the painful messages that are embedded in their life experience  - often called 'mental distress' -  they often need the support of others, especially those who have confronted their own life experience. With such support, people can reclaim their life experience: making it work for them once again, rather than working against them.  This simple assumption lies at the sea-bed of the Tidal Model. 

Although the Tidal Model has been applied successfully in acute, community, rehabilitation and forensic settings, its primary focus is on helping people begin, and to further pursue, their 'recovery voyage'. The Tidal Model recognises that we all pursue similar journeys. Most of us have problems of living that need to be acknowledged, addressed and to which we must ultimately respond, if we are to live full, meaningful lives. In that sense, the distinction commonly made between 'us and them' - 'patient' and 'professional' - is false. The struggle underpinning life is simply more evident in some people's lives, than others. Or perhaps, some people are simply more honest about acknowledging the presence of the life struggle and its concomitant difficulties.

The Tidal Model acknowledges the central importance of 'nursing', in the social rather than professional sense. People in mental distress often feel overwhelmed by the experience. It is 'as if' they risk drowning in their distress. It is as if they will be dashed upon the rocks, along with all their hopes and dreams. This powerful metaphor for the problems of human living, which commonly are translated into the language of mental illness, reminds us that people need a metaphorical 'safe haven', to which they can retreat, to undertake the repair work that will be necessary if they are ever to return to their 'ocean of experience'. This metaphor also reminds us that the person may be helped to undertake this repair work, but the effort involved will be theirs, and theirs alone. The safe haven metaphor also reminds us that safety is often an interpersonal experience. The safe haven that many people with problems of living need, is a human context, and can be provided in almost any interpersonal setting.  

The Tidal Model embraces a powerful belief in the possibility of recovery. This belief was eloquently expressed by Windhorse Associates, which represents the finest human ideals in mental health care. 

"Inherent in every person there is a natural healing impulse, a motivation toward health and wholeness. This motivation can be ignited and strengthened in an environment where an attitude of hope and a belief in each person’s potential for growth is pervasive. At the heart of an individual’s recovery from mental disorder is the restoration of personal, social, and environmental connections."

Windhorse Principle

As this principle implies, people with major problems of living need the right conditions (safe haven) under which to work on their problems. However, they will and do, conduct the work themselves. This is obvious, even when people appear to be doing nothing. Dr Pat Deegan, the famous American consumer/advocate, noted that, especially at times of great personal crisis, people need to retire from everyday life. It is as if they are retiring to some quiet, and often distant place, to review their experiences; to prepare for the time when they will re-enter the arena of life. Pat Deegan's use of the metaphor of the 'wood shed', to which she saw distressed people often retiring from the world, echoes the Tidal Model's appreciation of the 'safe haven'.

At times of great distress, people need support, rather then 'fixing', which comes in a variety of 'therapeutic' disguises. Traditional ideas about the value of various therapies - whether in the form of drugs, hospitalisation or one of the countless 'talking cures'- suggest that someone else might know what the distressed person needs. The Tidal Model assumes that people have the knowledge of what needs to be done, within them. Consequently, people do not need expert therapists, they need supporters. All of us - whether professional agents, friends, family members or fellow travellers - might care to remember that the best that we can become is to become genuine supporters. As such, the task of the helper is to provide the conditions under which the people may heal themselves, or be healed - as Florence Nightingale famously remarked - 'by Nature or by God'.  

The Tidal Model recognises that all helpers -however respected, qualified or seemingly expert - know little of what is actually happening within the person's experience of mental distress. As a result, we know little of what might need to be done, to address, resolve, or otherwise 'live with' the experience. That vital knowledge lies, perhaps dormant, within the person. 

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