The Rejection Rehabilitation Project provides resources to help people who may be or definitely are experiencing rejection. Our projects help them access resources to practice self-care due to the impact of being rejected and to reorient to new opportunities to move past the rejection. We also hope to help people clear up situations where they may not have actually been rejected, address inappropriate stigma and biases that may be causing rejection, and take responsibility for challenging behaviors that may have led to rejection. It is often not possible to “fix” a rejection situation. At the same time, we work on tools that can help people de-escalate and reintegrate in case there are chances at inclusion.
Some Rejection Rehabilitation Project projects and resources include:
- Written Off: Three Steps for Moving Forward When You’re Feeling Rejected – Published by the Australian Dispute Resolution Research Network, this blog post details how Dan Berstein used a model called the 3 R’s to respect, reply, and reorient when he experienced rejection from a major organization. You can read it at https://adrnetwork.blog/2025/02/13/written-off-three-steps-to-move-forward-when-you-feel-rejected/
- Rehabilitating from Rejection Survey – We have a goal of collecting as many resources as possible to help people learn ways to rehabilitate from rejection. We are starting with a survey of conflict resolution experts to learn what ideas and resources they have to share. You can take the survey and help us by visiting https://forms.gle/QJhjj8Sr57A7FnHn8
- SAD Survey – Developed by MH Safe as a way to help people learn if they are being rejected, the SAD Survey is a tool that can help folks survey their communities to anonymously learn if they have been experiencing shunnings (S), avoidances (A), or disparagements (D) – which often may happen behind one’s back without their transparent knowledge. Learn more about it at www.mhsafe.org/SAD
- Sometimes You Need to Be Seen to Be Heard – This Mediate.com article shares visualization tools including organizational network analysis (ONA) that can be used to help illustrate the impact of social exclusion. Access it at https://mediate.com/sometimes-you-need-to-be-seen-to-be-heard-three-easy-ways-to-visualize-what-matters-in-your-dispute/
- Empowerment Support Group – After MH Safe tried to create a support group for people experiencing rejection and challenges in one particular organization and the postings were removed, we shifted to a model that invites all people to a united peer support group for empowerment. Learn more about it at https://mhsafe.org/empowerment/