The voices that I hear were very amped up before our historic first facilitator training in Florida. Like a lot of voice-hearers when I experience something new, my experiences can become louder or more intense.
My Voices had questions about whether what we were about to try was going to work. Whether the two-track training we had recently developed, honoring the different needs of groups for voice-hearers and groups for their family members could have the same transformative power as the other trainings we had held across the country.
I decided to visit a peaceful place before the training began and headed to a nearby Japanese garden. As I bought my ticket to the garden, something caught my eye.
Read MoreIn the United States, media representations of voice-hearers are rare and mostly negative. When our stories *are* shared, we are often portrayed as one-dimensional, irrational, violent or unable to contribute to our communities. Research indicates that one in ten people hear voices at some point in their adult lives, however; negative media representation leads many to stay silent about these experiences. We now know that that silence and isolation can make an experience of hearing voices more distressing and harder to navigate.
With the Hearing Voices approach, we create space for voice-hearers to share their experiences in all their individual complexity. We see over and over the healing value of articulating what our voices say, how long they have been in our lives, and what life events they might relate to. We have seen the importance of making room for trauma-informed and culturally-competent understandings of both why voices/visions occur and what healing practices are available.
Read More
