Our group focuses on giving peer support to those dealing with lived experience of Depersonalisation and Derealisation (DPDR). It is not group therapy, or a medical consultation and it is not a substitute for medical care. Peer Support is not a crisis service. You can find details of urgent and emergency contacts here.

1. We treat members of the group with dignity and respect everyone’s right to privacy. What people share with us remains in the group and is not shared with others. We also do not discuss group members or other people who are not present. We therefore do not record, take photographs, and we make sure we are in a quiet, private space where we cannot be overheard by others.

2. We ensure that our cameras are kept on throughout the duration of the call, and that we are in clear view with good lighting.

3. We do not make assumptions or judgements of others or their situations. We respect people’s names and pronouns. Racist, discriminatory or derogatory language will not be tolerated.

4. We listen and we do not talk over others. We wait for others to finish before we speak. We give supportive attention to the person who is speaking and avoid side conversations.

5. We appreciate that participating can mean different things to different people, and it is okay to participate in whatever way you feel able. We try to give everyone an opportunity to share. No one should feel obligated to share more information than they are comfortable with. We ensure that we do not go into detail about traumatic experiences and remain mindful of possible triggering topics such as abuse/violence and drug use, for example.

6. We are here to share our own feelings and experiences; we try not to give advice as we understand everyone’s experiences are different from our own and we are all in different stages in our journeys. To that end, we appreciate that people experience DPDR in different ways. Some people may experience symptoms secondary to another condition, comorbidly, chronically or episodically and we remain mindful of that in our discussions, and do not routinely share how long we have experienced the condition.

7. We are appreciative of everyone being part of the meeting and we make every effort to join on time to avoid delays for others. We make sure that our cameras and microphones are working before the session starts, and we try to ensure that we have a stable internet connection.

8. We do not secure a ticket if we are not experiencing DPDR ourselves, and we only obtain one if we intend to attend the session. If we are unable to attend for any reason, we either cancel on Eventbrite directly or contact Unreal to let them know with as much notice as possible. We also only secure one ticket for ourselves and do not secure tickets for other people.