EVENTS

Meetings, conferences and training events from around the world




16th July 2008
Hearing Voices: A Holistic Approach
Birmingham, UK
This conference looks at transforming relationships with voices, therapy, self-help groups, creativity, medication, different explanations for voice hearing, empowerment and recovery.
Hearing Voices Network England
More information here


17th July 2008
Hearing Voices Network Annual General Meeting
Birmingham, UK
Planning for the future to make HVN more sustainable and secure.
More information here


14th September
It's Good ToTalk: World Hearing Voices Day
Worldwide
Our international awareness day combats the secrecy and stigma surrounding hearing voices. More information here


10-12 September 2008 Asylum! Conference and Festival, Manchester, UK Updated programme and more details of speakers and themes
More information here


15th– 19th September 2008, St Andrews, Scotland
Making Recovery Happen: Training Trainer's for Change
A week long residential course designed to create capacity for recovery and enable services to utilise their skills towards making recovery happen.


22nd - 25th September 2008
Working with and Talking to Voices Scotland
4 day residential course featuring Dirk Corstens & Eleanor Longden and the voice dialogue methods used by Rufus May in the drama-documentary "The Doctor Who Hears Voices".
More information here


4th - 5th of November 2008, Recovery and Psychosis
International Recovery Conference conference More information here
Hosted by Hearing Voices Network Australia and Richmond Fellowship WA.


6th - 8th November 2008. Voices and Emotions
INTERVOICE Meeting, Perth, Australia
Download the flyer for the INTERVOICE meeting here and the full programme here



Working across the world to spread positive and hopeful messages about the experience of hearing voices

World of voices

Hearing Voices: Easy to understand introduction to the issue of hearing voices:
Online broadcast and transcript using a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world you live.

The Worldwide INTERVOICE Network: Information on national initiatives

  • Australia
    Australia
    Visit their website here

  • Austria
    Austria
    Visit their website here

  • Denmark
    Denmark
    Visit their website here

  • England
    England
    Visit their website here

  • Finland
    Finland
    Visit their website here

  • Germany
    Germany
    Visit their website here

  • Ireland
    Ireland
    Visit their website here

  • Italy
    Italy

  • Japan
    japan

  • Netherlands
    Netherlands
    Visit their website here

  • New Zealand
    New Zealand

  • Norway
    Norway
    Visit their website here

  • Palestine
    Palestine

  • Scotland
    Scotland
    Visit their website here

  • Spain
    Spain

  • Sweden
    Sweden

  • Switzerland
    Switzerland

  • USA
    USA
    Visit their website here

  • Wales
    Wales

    • *NEW*

      Am I Normal? What is normality? What is it like to have a psychotic epsisode? Listen to this fascinating radio documentary broadcast by the BBC here

      Twelve essential facts about the experience of hearing voices here


      See Greek language version here Greece

      See Italian language version here Italy

      Strategies for Coping with Distressing Voices: A comprehensive guide reproduced by kind permission of Hearing Voices Australia Read it here

      Read our practical guide to coping with hearing voices here

      Find out more about this different way of thinking about the experience of hearing voices here

      What do Socrates, Joan of Arc, William Blake, Anthony Hopkins, Gandhi and Brian Wilson share? Find out here

      Recovering from overwhelming voices by changing your relationship with them. Five questions about the importance of changing your relationship with your voices based on interviews with 50 recovered voice hearers. See article here

      Complete our questionnaire for people who hear voices, it may help you understand your experience better, read about it here








Ron Coleman
Ron Coleman Sponsored Head Shave


Dedicated INTERVOICE member, Ron Coleman has committed himself to having his beloved hair chopped off for charity. The money raised will be used to assist voice hearers and workers from unfunded hearing voices networks to attend the annual INTERVOICE meeting to be held in Perth, Australia in November 2008. Ron will attend his favourite Hairdressing salon in Dundee, Scotland on the 24th of September where the “shaving” will take place, administered by Ron’s' stylist Sharon. A video recording of the event will be placed on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Click on title for more information on how you can sponsor Ron





Scotland

The Scottish Hearing Voices Networks wants your views on their plans for the future


The Scottish Hearing Voices Network is planning to set up a national office to support the development of hearing voices groups throughout Scotland. They have written a draft proposal and would like to hear what voice hearers from Scotland think about their ideas. They would also be happy to hear from other people concerned with hearing voices too. Click on the title for more information on how you can get involved







If you hear voices (aka auditory hallucinations); if you know someone who does; if you work with people who hear voices; if you want to know about more about this experience. Then this site is for you.
Find out what visitors think about our site here
Find out what visitors tell us about their voice experiences here
You can help, please visit our donations page here





Marius Romme
Welcome to our site

A message from Professor Marius Romme, MD, PhD, President of INTERVOICE






Members of INTERVOICE wearing our World Hearing Voices T-Shirt

We are people who hear voices, family members, friends, mental health workers, activists, and concerned citizens.
Find out how we work together here


Did youWorld of voicesKnow?

* Studies have found that between four and 10 per cent of people across the world hear voices.

* Between 70 and 90 cent of people who hear voices do so following traumatic events.

* Voices can be male, female, without gender, child, adult, human or non-human.

* People may hear one voice or many. Some people report hearing hundreds, although in almost all reported cases, one dominates above the others.

* Voices can be experienced in the head, in the ears, outside the head, in some other part of the body, or in the environment.

* Voices often reflect important aspects of the hearer's emotional state - emotions that are often unexpressed by the hearer.

Twelve more essential facts about the experience of hearing voices here



INTERVOICE
Voices and Emotions
Join us at the next INTERVOICE Meeting, to be held in Perth, Australia


The dates for the next INTERVOICE meeting have been confirmed as the 6th, 7th, and 8th November 2008. The meeting will follow an International Recovery Conference conference Recovery and Psychosis to be held on the 4th and 5th of November 2008. Hosted by Hearing Voices Network Australia and Richmond Fellowship WA.

Download the flyer for the INTERVOICE meeting here, the full programme here and the Expression of Interest Form here




INTERVOICE logo

It's Good ToTalk:
World Hearing Voices Day
Sunday 14th September 2008




Our international awareness day combats the secrecy and stigma surrounding hearing voices.
Many people who hear challenging voices have found that a turning point in learning to cope with this experience has been finding different ways of talking with and understanding their voices. Learning to understand the motives of your voices and different ways of talking with them can help the relationship to change between the voice hearer and the voices. IT´S GOOD TO TALK ....

Find more about WHVD2008 and what will be happening here





Talking to Voices


"Many people who hear challenging voices have found that a turning point in learning to cope with this experience has been finding different ways of talking with and understanding their voices. Learning to understand the motives of your voices and different ways of talking with them can help the relationship to change between the voice hearer and the voices...."

Click on the title above to read the highly recommended article by Dirk Corstens, Eleanor Longden and Rufus May about the methods used by Rufus May in "The Doctor who Hears Voices" shown on UK TV on the 21st April 2008. Over a million people watched it when it was broadcast and thousands of people are now down loading from several Internet sites. It has provoked a strong response from viewers. Many people have been inspired by the film, others more attached to a medical approach to distress have been outraged, read Rufus Mays' reflections on making the film here

Also

We talked about the voices ... Eleanor Longden, a voice hearer, describes her experience of talking to her voices in the UK mass circulation newspaper The Daily Mail, 07/02/2008
I discovered that if I engaged with the voices, they became less frequent. I also learnt to challenge the more threatening voice, refusing to do what it told me and telling myself it was no more than a symbol of my own externalised anger. .. One by one the voices gradually disappeared, until I was only occasionally hearing one... Three years on, I am healthy, happy and perfectly stable.

Talking to Voices DVD: Professor Marius Romme
See Marius Romme explaining the theoretical basis for voice dialoguing, then with the help of a voice hearer demonstrates the voice dialoguing technique. buy your own copy here

Working with and Talking to Voices
4 day residential course featuring Dirk Corstens & Eleanor Longden (see Daily Mail article above) and the voice dialogue methods used by Rufus May in the drama-documentary "The Doctor Who Hears Voices".

22nd September to 25th September 2008

To download the programme for the course click here

If you wish to to ensure a place on this popular course you can reserve one now, please contact Working To Recovery






World of voices

Our new anthems


In tribute to your creativity, two pieces of music have been produced for INTERVOICE, the first by Mary Maddocks, the second by Martin Brotheridge

"Voices" by Mary Maddocks


listen to it here
Mary Maddocks

This song was specially written by Mary to acknowledge and celebrate the experience of people who hear voices.
read the lyrics here

The voice the muse...
by Martin Brotheridge


Martin Bortheridge: Self portrait


An instrumental track inspired by the experience of hearing voices, read what Martin says about the tune and listen to it here




In memory of Hearing Voices Movement activists Terence Mclauchlin and Mickey de Valda


Alternatives beyond Psychiatry

Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry


Contributing writers include INTERVOICE members: Sandra Escher, Maths Jesperson, Hannelore Klafki, Rufus May, Marius Romme, Philip Thomas

Read a review of the book by Karl Koehler, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Bonn here

Order your copy now!

Find out more here



This website was last updated on 27/06/2008