BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme showed a 15-minute piece today about young people who hear voices. You can watch it here – the piece begins at minute 14:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/b0b5hh…/victoria-derbyshire-08062018
In it, two young people, Tia and Laura, talk about their experiences of hearing voices. There are also interviews with three adults, too, who talk about ways of understanding and supporting a young person who is hearing voices.
If so you’re not alone. Being trans and having unusual sensory experiences can be really overwhelming, so we’ve published a new leaflet called ‘Voices, Visions & Gender’, written for young trans people who hear voices, see visions or have other sensory experiences.
The leaflet was written in collaboration with Action for Trans Health, with input from young trans people with lived experience of hearing voices.
INTEGRATED VOICES – ONLINE CONSULTATION
Have you ever searched online to try to find good quality information about voice-hearing & different support options?
Would you like to have a say in how a new website about voice-hearing will be built?
Hearing the Voice at Durham University is working with people who hear voices to develop a new website called Integrated Voices. The site will help people of all ages find clear and balanced information about voice hearing, and the things that can help.
They hope that Integrated Voices will make it easier for people to find information about different approaches to voice-hearing and ways of supporting those who are struggling with the voices they hear. But, to make this work they need your help 🙂
You can help to shape the project by filling out an online survey telling the team what you’d like to see on the website. The survey is available at: https://tinyurl.com/integrated-voices-YP
About Hearing the Voice:
Hearing the Voice is a large interdisciplinary study about voice-hearing, based at Durham University and funded by the Wellcome Trust. Their international research team includes academics specialising in Philosophy, Psychology, Psychiatry, Cultural Studies and more. They also work closely with clinicians, voice-hearers and other experts by experience.
In addition to exploring the personal and biological experience of hearing voices, they are investigating the links between voice-hearing and creativity, and exploring the ways in which voice-hearing has been understood and represented in different cultures, religions and historical periods. Many of their researchers are developing new and exciting ways of improving clinical practice, helping people who find their voices distressing.
We’re incredibly excited to announce that our new online forum for young people, their parents, carers and supporters is now LIVE! The forum can be found at http://forum.voicecollective.co.uk 🙂
Our online forum is a safe, confidential space for young people aged 25 and under who hear voices, see visions or have other unusual sensory experiences or beliefs, as well as their supporters. We have separate spaces for youth members and supporter members (so young people can only see what other young people share, and supporters can only see what other supporters share). To help this forum stay safe for our users, only registered forum members can see what’s posted.
If you’d like to join the forum, please register at forum.voicecollective.co.uk. When registering, please let us know whether you’re joining as a youth member, or as a supporter, so that we can make sure you have access to the right part of the forum. If you’re a young person, please let us know your age and where you live (e.g. which country and which county (UK) or state (US). Knowing where abouts you are in the world helps us to direct you to the nearest support available 🙂
We’re hugely grateful to Hearing the Voice at Durham University for all of their support. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to build this space for young voice hearers and their families. We’d also like to thank Hearing Voices Network England for creating the site and offering co-facilitation support.
If you’d like to find out more about Hearing the Voice, please visit: www.hearingthevoice.org. Please visit www.hearing-voices.org to find out more about the work of the Hearing Voices Network England.
We’re currently recruiting for a new part-time Voice Collective Development Worker to replace Shanika, who is leaving Voice Collective to resume her university studies.
We are seeking a motivated, creative and confident individual for the post of Development Worker in our innovative project to establish a specialist service and network of peer support groups for young people who hear voices, see visions or have other extra sensory experiences. The services also supports their families, carers and support workers.
Funded until March 2020 (with possible extension), this post will give the right person an opportunity to make an important contribution to an established and renowned project.
We are looking for someone with excellent interpersonal skills, flexibility and the awareness to work well with different children and adolescent services. In addition, the successful candidate will have excellent awareness of mental health issues in relation to young people and their families; a minimum of one year’s experience of working with vulnerable young people in a paid capacity; experience of facilitating Hearing Voices or a similar peer support group; an in-depth understanding of the principles and practice of HVN Hearing Voices Groups and a strong commitment to user-led initiatives.
Applications are particularly welcome from those with personal experience of hearing voices, seeing visions or having other extra sensory experiences.
Key information
Starting salary: £14,891, plus a pension contribution
No. of hours per week: 21
Closing date for applications: 9am on Thursday 21st December 2017.
1st round interviews: Thursday 4th January 2018
2nd round interviews: Thursday 11th January 2018
Please see the Mind in Camden website for more information and to download application material: http://www.mindincamden.org.uk/support-us/jobs and do share amongst friends and colleagues.
We’ve had a busy autumn, delivering lots of training. The past few months, we’ve had some great trainees attend our half-day, one-day and three-day Voice Collective courses. A huge thanks to all those who attended ‘Supporting Children & Young People Who Hear Voices’ on 11th September; ‘Supporting Young Refugees and Asylum Seekers Who Hear Voices’ on 25th September; ‘A Fresh Approach to Understanding Young People Who Hear Voices’ on 23rd October, and our group facilitation training on 6th, 13th and 14th November 2017.
We’ve got two upcoming trainings at Voice Collective, with only a few places left. On Monday 11th December 2017, we have our level 3 training, called ‘Advanced Working With Voices’, from 10am-4pm at Amnesty International UK (Shoreditch, London). This training builds upon our level 2 (‘Supporting Children & Young People Who Hear Voices’) and group facilitation training and looks in depth at things such as developing therapeutic relationships with those who do not trust easily, as well as looking at ‘taboo’ (e.g. violent or sexual) voices. (Please note: this course is deliberately kept at a small number. In order to attend ‘Advanced Working With Voices’, you must have attended either level 2 or group facilitation training with us, prior to 11th December 2017.) For more information and to register for this course, please see our Eventbrite link. There is currently one space left on the course.
On Monday 22nd January 2018, we are running ‘A Fresh Approach to Understanding Young People Who Hear Voices’ training again, from 1.30pm-4.30pm at Amnesty International UK (Shoreditch, London). This half-day course is an introduction to the Hearing Voices Network approach to voice hearing. It looks at what it feels like to hear voices, for a young person, as well as the impact hearing voices can have on their home, school, and social life. Attending this course is a pre-requisite to attending other Voice Collective training. For more information and to register for this training, please see our Eventbrite link.
Not able to attend our training at the moment? Why not email us at info@voicecollective.co.uk and ask to be put on our mailing list? This will keep you up-to-date with new trainings as they are advertised.
Latest News from our manager Eve…
It’s been an exciting and inspiring couple of weeks here at Voice Collective. HVN USA, the USA’s national hearing voices network, invited me to deliver two workshops at the 9th World Hearing Voices Congress, which they hosted in Boston, MA, across the 16th – 18th August.
The theme for this year’s Congress was A Revolution of Unseen Voices, creating a platform for the voices, stories and communities that have seldom been heard within traditional psychiatry and psychology. Keynote speakers included Sangoma Traditional Healer Gogo Ekhaya Esima, who spoke passionately about trauma and spiritual growth, ‘Liberation Psychologist’ David Walker, who charted the history of the oppression of the Yakama Nation in Washington, and Mind in Camden’s Akiko Hart, who spoke of our work together supporting voice hearers in prisons, forensic secure units and Immigration Removal Centres.
We were delighted to win an Innovation award from Intervoice, the International Hearing Voices Network, for our work supporting people in detention (including young offenders), and one of the young people who we’ve worked closely with over the years at Voice Collective, the brilliant Nikki Mattocks, received a Special Mention in the Inspiring Person category. An enormous well done to Nikki for all her stellar campaigning and peer support work!
More than 70 people attended the two Voice Collective workshops – “Somewhere Where I Can Be Me”: Creating & sustaining safe spaces for children & young people who hear distressing voices, and Death By A Thousand Cuts? Rethinking self-harming by children & young people who hear voices. There was some fantastic discussion about the need for peer support initiatives in other parts of the world, and what these might look like, as well as ways of reframing and responding differently to children and young people who hear voices and self-harm.
Over the next few months I’ll be following up with colleagues and friends across the States, Canada and Denmark, supporting them to develop their services for children and young people, within community and in-patient settings. We’ll also be using our learning from the Congress to develop extra resources for the website, so watch this space!
The Voice Collective team are working with two researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester to find out more about the experiences of young people hearing voices.
Earlier in the year we worked together to develop an online study exploring young people’s experiences of hearing voices – what the voices are like and how they affect young people. The study is now live, and it can be filled in by any young person under 18 no matter where they live.
The aim of the study is to learn more about what it’s like for young people to hear voices, what’s important to them and what helps. We’re aiming for the study to be used to help to improve the services that are offered to young people hearing voices, some of whom might be in distress.
If you’re under 18 and would like to take part, you can visit: www.mmu.ac.uk/hearing-voices-children.
We’re also really interested to hear from parents and carers about their experiences. To fill in the parents and carers survey, you can visit: www.mmu.ac.uk/hearing-voices-parents.
If you’re interested to find out more about the project, take a look @youngvoicestudy.
You can also find the researchers, Dr Sarah Parry and Dr Filippo Varese, here: @drSarahParry @FilippoVarese
We’re super excited to announce the launch of a new peer support group – at Brookside Adolescent Unit in Ilford, London. The group’s members have named it the Brookside Voice Collective, or BVC for short.
It’s the first group for young people who hear voices that Brookside have ever run, and it’s our second group in an Adolescent Unit.
The group is open to any young people on the unit who hear voices, see visions or have other ‘unusual’ sensory experiences or beliefs, and it runs every Wednesday from 4.00 – 5.00pm in the group room.
The group is facilitated by unit staff, who we trained up last year, as well as members of the Voice Collective team. A huge congratulations to Danielle, Nick, Ben and Juanita for launching the group!
If you’re interested to learn more about setting up and facilitating Voice Collective groups, or if you’d like to attend one of our free training events, please speak with Eve or Shanika on info@voicecollective.co.uk.
Rai, one of our former team members, is currently recruiting young people (aged 12-16) with personal experience of hearing voices to take part in a research study. This study is independent to Voice Collective – but we have agreed to publicise it because we feel it’s an important area.
Take a look at the information, below, to find out more. If you, or someone you know, is interested in taking part – please contact Rai directly. If you are interested in taking part, but would like to think it through with someone from Voice Collective – you can always get in touch with us first.
Here’s the information from Rai:
Hi. My name is Rachel (Rai) and I am studying an MSc by Research in Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University. I hear voices myself, but didn’t tell anyone about my experiences until I was an adult. I’m doing a research study to understand more about young people’s experiences of talking, or not talking, with others about voices.
I am looking to speak with young people who are:
People hear voices for all kinds of reasons. Some people who hear voices may also have a diagnosis of a mental health problem. Some may not. You are welcome to take part in this study whether you have a mental health problem or not. I’m interested in your experiences and how you understand them.
If you decide to take part, I will arrange to meet with you to talk about your experiences of hearing voices and talking about it to other people. I will bring some photos as, if you like, you can use them to help you explain how you feel. If you are aged under 16 you may need the consent of your parent or guardian to take part.
I can reimburse travel costs and can also offer a £10 high street shopping voucher in thanks for the time you have taken to take part in this research.
YP Voices Research Flyer | Participant Information Sheet
Email: rw431@canterbury.ac.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/YPHearingVoices
Facebook: www.facebook.com/YPHearingVoices
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