Margreet De Pater was presented with ISPS honorary lifetime membership at the ISPS 2026 conference, in appreciation of his contributions to ISPS and to the field of psychosocial approaches to psychosis.

The below speech was read out as the award was presented to her.

“Today we honour an extraordinary woman: Margreet de Pater. Margreet grew up as the daughter of a clergyman who taught her two essential lessons: think for yourself and love one another. Anyone who knew Margreet will recognize how deeply these two messages shaped her life. They guided her work, her vision, and above all, her way of relating to people.

As a young psychiatrist, Margreet resisted the painful situations that people with psychosis often faced in psychiatric institutions. She chose a different path. She left the hospital setting and, as a social psychiatrist, stood beside people in their own homes, together with their families. She listened with full attention, asked sharp yet compassionate questions, and refused to see psychosis merely as an illness. For her, it was a developmental challenge—something people can grow through, especially when they are connected to others. A perspective that anticipated what we now call the Open Dialogue approach.

I met Margreet in 2002, at the founding of ISPS Netherlands–Flanders. Together with Jan Leyten, she was the driving and inspiring force behind this new network. In 2008 she became our chair—a role she carried for sixteen years with remarkable dedication and commitment. From the very beginning, she insisted that people with lived experience and family members should have a real voice in the board. Because, as she often said, we need them to make psychosis care more humane and more effective.

We learned so much from her. Margreet developed the safe struggle model, emphasizing how essential it is for people to learn to deal with tension and conflict without fear. She initiated an impressive pilot project with a Moroccan multi‑family group. And she constantly sought out the recovery strategies that people themselves discover. With great humility, she listened to their stories.

In her book The Loneliness of Psychosis, she wrote: ‘Families need friends and acquaintances to stand strong in raising their children, and children need friends and other adults in order to become independent thinkers who can actively solve difficult problems with others and do not have to withdraw into a virtual world’. It remains my heartfelt wish that this beautiful book will one day be translated into English.

In 2014, Margreet retired from her position at the Parnassia Bavo Academy, but certainly not from ISPS. She continued her engagement internationally in the EC of ISPS, contributing for more than ten years to the development of learning resources and advocating for psychosis approaches that are both humane and scientifically grounded. She followed the ISPS international email discussion group for years and regularly shared her own thoughtful contributions.

Her work in community psychiatry brought her close to marginalized migrant communities, especially Moroccan families. The themes of migration, alienation, and psychosis ran like a thread through her work. It was Margreet’s vision that inspired us to bring the 2019 ISPS International Conference to Rotterdam: Stranger in the City, on the Circular Relationship between Alienation and Psychosis and the healing power of Human Reconnection. A conference symbolizing resilience, diversity, and recovery—values Margreet embodied.

The conference demanded much from her, even sleepless nights, but it became a great success. The warm atmosphere, the strong presence of lived‑experience voices, the involvement of families, and the integration of scientific, therapeutic, and cultural perspectives—this was exactly what she had hoped for.

Margreet, it was a privilege to work with you. We came from different therapeutic traditions, yet we found each other in the fight for humane psychosis care. You were a multitasker of the highest order, yet always modest, always learning, always open.

In 2024, during the ISPS conference in Helsinki, you stepped down from your international role with your moving farewell speech: “Instead of becoming psychotic, I choose to be a psychiatrist.” A moment many of us will never forget.

And in 2026, we had the honour of naming you an honorary member of ISPS Netherlands–Flanders. With words that I am proud to repeat today:

Thank you — For your plea to give people with lived experience their own voice. For your courage in confronting what threatens their safety. For your openness to new approaches. For your book, The Loneliness of Psychosis. For your contribution to scientific research and to the learning resources of ISPS International. For the countless study days, lectures, and of course the 2019 international conference in Rotterdam.

But above all, thank you for your warm humanity and your generous smile.”

An interview with Margreet can be found below (English translation can be activated by selecting the appropriate button at the bottom of the page) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuvcpVaa3r8

Ludi Van Bouwel 8th July 2026