Table of contents
Introduction
Hearing voices is a human experience that is much more common than most people believe. Many people have an internal voice that expresses fear, threat or self-criticism. The voice often reflects difficulty or trauma in the past. When that difficulty was severe, the voice or voices are sometimes experienced as coming from outside. This is also true of visual, touch and smell experiences.
The traditional treatment for hearing voices in western medicine has been prescribed drugs. However, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists are using talking therapies more and more to explore the meaning of the voices. Below are some perspectives on the use of talking therapies for people who hear voices and some other useful resources.
You should never change or stop medication without consulting your doctor.
Talking therapies for people hearing voices
In this context, talking therapies work by helping voice-hearers develop a more soothing stance to themselves and their voices. That gives emotional space for the hearer to understand the messages for them in what the voices are saying. The hearer can then develop more helpful responses to what they are hearing. This can reduce distress and increase feelings of safety and calm.
The Voices in my Head – Eleanor Longden (YouTube video)
Eleanor Longden was diagnosed with schizophrenia. With the help of a psychiatrist, she came to understand the voices she heard not as a medical symptom but as strategy for surviving trauma. She now understands her voices as a meaningful experience which can be explored as part of recovery. She explains this very clearly in the video below.
Compassion therapy for voice hearing
Another relevant approach is Compassion Focused Therapy. This is a talking therapy developed for people who are highly self-critical or experience a great sense of fear or threat, both of which are common in voice-hearers. It encourages us to develop the compassionate side of ourselves alongside the sad, angry and fearful parts. Here, compassion means both for yourself, your voices and other people.
Here is a resource from From ABC in Australia: Tapping into your compassionate self as an approach to therapy for voice hearing and psychosis (audio link).
Other resources
Understanding Voices
A comprehensive website helping people to find information about different approaches to voice-hearing and ways of supporting them.
Hearing Voices Network
HVN supports people who experience voice-hearing, visions, tactile sensations and other sensory experiences. Their support includes providing self-help groups and a telephone line for information and help (web link).
Compassion for Voices: a tale of courage and hope (video)
Below is a video from the Cultural Institute at Kings College, London. It is based on the idea that the brain has three emotional systems: the threat system, the drive system and the soothing system. And it explains how a fictional character, Stuart, learns to cope with the voices he hears.
The video shows everyday events causing Stuart’s threat system to kick in. This activates his negative voices which are fearful and self-critical. This all feels overwhelming. The video ends with Stuart learning to tap into his soothing system. In the course of therapy, he develops compassion for himself and his voices. His compassionate self can even talk with the voices, so that they understand each other. His sense of threat decreases. He feels safer and more grounded.
Trigger warning: the video begins with Stuart’s voices expressing fear and self-criticism before he learns to soothe these voices.