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Official page for Not The Void UK

@notthevoiduk.bsky.social

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A confidential, compassionate, non clinical peer support group where adults in the UK and Europe can speak freely about suicide. NOT a pro suicide, method swapping group. Account run by group facilitators. https://www.notthevoid.uk/

www.notthevoid.uk

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · Aug 1

Not The Void UK is a community of people across the UK and Europe. We meet for fortnightly Sunday meetings to have frank, compassionate, non clinical and confidential conversations about our relationship to suicide.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 4d

Thank you @margaret.bsky.social for reading the sonnet, I needed to hear that tonight.

Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 4d

When it comes to deciding how we use technology, it's useful to consider who has come before us in our heritage of talking about suicide, how they solved problems and avoided replicating harm within systems.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 4d

Nobody invented talking about suicide, but we honour a lineage of people who decided they wanted to take a harm reduction stance to speak to suicidal peers. Not the Void UK came from Alt2sui, which came from queer, BIPOC, sex worker, migrant and marginalised communities.
spotify.link/4wN0fng7CXb

Crisis Hotlines: Of Course Queers Invented Them, Part One

spotify.link

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Reposted by Official page for Not The Void UK

Hearing Voices at Mind in Camden @hearingvoicesmic.bsky.social · 4d

Sitting With Suicidality
Wed 10 Dec 2025 10.30am-4.30pm GMT, on Zoom

This training offers a space to talk about suicide and suicidality, to explore and reflect on different perspectives and assumptions, and to think about how we support people.

www.tickettailor.com/events/mindi...

Book your place – Sitting With Suicidality Training December 2025 – Zoom

Sitting With Suicidality Training December 2025 – Zoom, Wed 10 Dec 2025 - This one-day training offers a space to talk about suicide and suicidality, to explore and reflect on different perspectives a...

www.tickettailor.com

Reposted by Official page for Not The Void UK

Hearing Voices at Mind in Camden @hearingvoicesmic.bsky.social · 4d

We have some new training dates coming up this autumn:

Understanding and supporting young people who hear voices (levels 1-3) www.tickettailor.com/events/mindi...

Hearing Voices Group Facilitation
www.tickettailor.com/events/mindi...

Sitting With Suicidality
www.tickettailor.com/events/mindi...

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 5d

The candles are lit for everybody we've lost to suicide and everything we lost to suicide and the way it still carries such stigma. My thoughts are with everyone impacted by the #LampardInquiry this week.

A yin yang candle holder with two candles lit and a card titled 'what did we lose' with a hairy monster creature and a small girl looking down into a well in an autumn wood landscape.

Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 9d

You can find more info on our values, how meetings work and our group agreement here
www.notthevoid.uk/resources

Resources — Not the Void

Just a few key info sheets about how we roll

www.notthevoid.uk

Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 9d

We are meeting on Sunday 19th at 3pm amd we have places free. We offer a confidential, non clinical, compassionate space where consent is valued and we approach the conversation with curiosity and non judgment.
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Not the Void Sunday Peer Support Meeting . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

Our Sunday meetings are a zoom space to talk frankly about suicide including thoughts, feelings, attempts and plans and the meaning suicide has in our lives. We are not a pro suicide space, attendees ...

us06web.zoom.us

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 12d

My wonderful co facilitator Lisa Marie created the poster up thread and I think her motto there is powerful. When we can gather as a community who offers each other care, we can say no, you will not push us into the Void of hopelessness and shame.

Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 12d

I'm really grateful that there are legal specialists and mods at Benefits and Work and brilliant advocates out there, fighting for people who are in poverty. We know financial stress and entrapment in punitive systems is a driver of suicide, and there is so much to be done.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 12d

Having access to these guides has not just been a resource, they have been a stepping stone to talking about the way poverty, work precarity, housing issues and dealing with the DWP makes us feel suicidal. That has helped to collectively connect to anger, resistance and action.

A sample poster made by our amazing co facilitator, saying fuck you DWP, you will not push us into the Void, with love, Not the Void. It has photos of hissing cats and middle fingers up.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 12d

The guides have benefited members who are in the position to act as carer, especially around claiming attendance allowance.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 12d

We're 11 months into an annual organisation subscription to Benefits and Work. 30+ members have accessed copies of guides on applying for benefits, appealing sanctions and award decisions and permitted work.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
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PIP claim help, plus ESA, DLA & Universal Credit

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments...

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 15d

It's maybe a bit early for the dreaded C word but I can confirm that Not the Void UK will have our annual zoom Christmas coffee hour on Thursday 25th December morning. Registration will be posted on our website closer to the time.
www.notthevoid.uk

A place to talk freely about suicide

We are a group of people living alongside experiences of suicide who seek to find meaningful connections and understanding within that experience. We are not a pro suicide space and do not discuss,...

www.notthevoid.uk

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Thank you. You can find the Wildflower Alliance list of groups online here if you or someone you love is in need of a similar style meeting

wildfloweralliance.org/alternatives...

Alternatives to Suicide Groups

Alternatives to Suicide - a Harm Reduction Approach to SuicideAlternatives to Suicide (Alt2Su) was first developed in Western Massachusetts by members of the Wildflower Alliance. The approach began wi...

wildfloweralliance.org

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

It's not easy to navigate individual and collective trauma, especially when a lot of it stems from epistemic injustice of being disbelieved. We don't always get it right but I am constantly moved by the compassion people bring to each other in meetings.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

We are not trying to move you through pain in a way that conforms to a rigid schedule of allotted speaking time and approved terminology. We are here to sit with you in the pain for a while.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Allowing for authentic self expression means that members can use their own language, identify their own experiences, express their emotions as they understand them, cry (or not) laugh, be cynical, be flat, be non verbal.
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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Co regulating as members and as a collective. Sometimes a lot of stuff can flow out and so if someone feels emotional/activated/overstimulated then it's ok to take a minute to pause, slow down and take a breath. We'll sit with them, there is no rush.
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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Members retain control over what they share and how. If all that a person shared was that they felt like dying, with no other info, we'd still offer them curiosity, compassion and care. Many of us have been harmed by having to demonstrate a level of distress to get a response from services.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Some of the ways we do this are:
Naming when things feel uncertain or uncomfortable. Naming it helps us all affirm that in healthy groups, we can name uncomfortable things and be supported rather than punished/gaslit for speaking up.
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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 19d

Talking about our suicidal feelings, thoughts, experiences, and attempts can bring up a lot of emotion. As a group, we want to support each other in a trauma informed way, so that people don't leave meetings re traumatised.
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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · 29d

Thank you to the Not the Voiders who were willing to try out Co Resting (they did mute my awful taste in ambient music 🤣) on a zoom social meeting call. We radically rested for 20 minutes, which is a big deal for our first time trying it together.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · Sep 21

It's our first meeting back this Autumn and as always, I've lit the candle in remembrance of everybody we've lost to suicide and every bit of our lives that we've lost to feeling suicidal and being isolated by shame, stigma and oppression.

A pale blue candle with a sunflower bead at it's base os lit, behind on a turquoise stand are three cards, lilac, pale blue and pink. They say
Your pain is real
The part of me that feels judged is the part of me that desperately needs to feel seen and loved.
You deserve to be treated with kindness.

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Official page for Not The Void UK @notthevoiduk.bsky.social · Sep 18

Speaking about suicide can be an intensely private thing, and so often people's conversations can get co opted into feedback, campaigns and research without it being respected for the value it has. Not the Void UK takes your privacy seriously.