Talking With Voices: A Survivor-Informed Dialogical Approach to Working with Voices (PREVIEW)

ABOUT ISPS-US
ISPS-US promotes psychological and social approaches to states of mind often called "psychosis" in treatment, education, and advocacy through collaborations between service providers, experts by experience, and family members.

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THIS WEBINAR IS A PREVIEW- to access the full recording, visit: www.isps-us.org/education

Webinar Description
Historically, mental health services have dissuaded voice hearers from talking to or engaging with their voices, instead favouring distraction or suppression techniques. Many voice hearers, however, have pushed back on this approach and developed ways to talk and relate to their voices. Rooted in the work of the Hearing Voices Movement, the Talking with Voices approach involves a therapist speaking directly to an individual’s voices, and the voice hearer repeating the voice’s responses verbatim, with the aim of helping to create a more peaceful and understanding relationship between voice(s) and voice hearer. This talk will provide a clinical and methodological overview of the Talking with Voices II trial, which is currently taking place across the UK.

Presenter Bios

Dirk Costens
My name is Dirk Corstens, and I live in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. I was trained in Schema-focused therapy, Voice Dialogue and Peer-supported Open Dialogue. I work as a social psychiatrist and psychotherapist in my private practice. One day a week, for people hearing voices; two days a week for social networks at two different settings: in Utrecht and the isle of Texel. Since 1992, I have collaborated in the hearing voices research project at Maastricht University initiated by Marius Romme and Sandra Escher. Together with them, I published several articles on voice hearing and most recently, the revised Dutch version of Making Sense of Hearing Voices. The English translation is expected in the fall (PCCS Books). I collaborate with Eleanor Longden and colleagues on the Talking with Voices research project at Manchester University.

For me, hearing voices is a natural experience, and the Talking with Voices approach is a very promising method that promotes making sense of voices and living with voices. My dream is that voice hearers find and support each other, don’t go into the medication-oriented psychiatric system, and that when you tell people that you hear voices it is a start of a conversation and evokes curiosity.



Alison Branitsky, PhD
Alison Branitsky, PhD, is a lived-experience researcher at the University of Manchester and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. She currently works as a lived experience supervisor on the NIHR-funded Talking with Voices II trial, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel dialogical intervention on improving the relationship between voice(s) and voice hearer. She is likewise a member of the Hearing Voices Movement, a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network, and has conducted extensive research on understanding and implementing Hearing Voices Groups in various contexts.