General

Offers information, support and understanding to people who hear voices and those who support them.

The aims of the network are
To raise awareness of voice hearing, visions, tactile sensations and other sensory experiences
To give men women and children who have these experiences an opportunity to talk freely about this together.
To support anyone with these experiences seeking to understand, learn and grow from them in their own way.
We try to achieve our aims through these objectives:

Promoting, developing and supporting self-help groups
Organising and delivering training sessions for health workers and the general public
Making available a telephone line that gives information and help to people who experience hearing voices, seeing visions and tactile sensations
To give men, women and children who have these experiences an opportunity to talk freely about them
Produce four newsletters a year

stand to Reason are committed to fighting discrimination and stigma, challenging stereotypes and changing attitudes.

Stand to Reason is a service-user led organisation that intends to work with and for people with mental ill health in the way that Stonewall has for gay people: raising the profile, fighting prejudice, establishing rights and achieving equality.

In today’s world, in today’s language, that probably makes us “bonkers”, but we have a vision of a changed world, one in which it will be common sense or stand to reason that people who have experience of mental distress and ill health deserve the same respect and consideration as those with physical ill health and problems.

MindFreedom International is an independent non-profit coalition defending human rights and promoting humane alternatives for mental and emotional well being.
MindFreedom Internationalunites 100 grassroots groups and thousands of members to win campaigns for human rights of people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities. MindFreedom Internationalis where mutual support meets human rights activism... and where democracy meets the mental health system.

A majority of MindFreedom members identify themselves as survivors of human rights violations in the mental health system, but membership is wide open to everyone who supports human rights including concerned mental health professionals, advocates, activists, family members and quite possibly you! As a non-profit organization under IRS 501(c)(3) your donations are tax-deductible.

The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of 'mental illness' rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework.

We are a network of people living with experiences that are commonly labeled as bipolar or other psychiatric conditions. We believe we have mad gifts to be cultivated and taken care of, rather than diseases or disorders to be suppressed or eliminated. By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness and creativity can inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Our participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.

The international paranoia network is a peer support group for individuals who have experienced paranoid beliefs

Support and advice for voice hearers in Australia, run with the Richmond Fellowship.

As a member of INTERVOICE (International Network of Training, Education and Reseach on voices) HVNA networks with international leaders in this field and global Hearing Voices Networks to bring quality service and innovative practice to Australia. We seek to offer support to voice hearers, consumers and to mental health workers across Australia who are seeking to work with the Hearing Voice movement approach. Ultimately we hope to evolve into a consumer driven organisation.

Our Role

To enable acceptance of hearing voices and promote recovery for people who hear distressing voices. This will be achieved thorugh support for self-help groups, education and awareness. (Where recovery is defined as living a meaningful life from the perspective of the individual)

Our Vision

To be at the forefront in achieving innovative, consumer led approaches to recovery.

Key Result Areas

We will realise our vision through four Key Result Areas:

"Hearing Voices" Groups
Education and Awareness
Partnerships & Alliances
Infrastructure & Resources
Our Key Principles

Accepting that hearing voices is a valid experience,
Respecting each person's interpretation and beliefs about their experiences,
Fostering and enabling safety and wellbeing of all,
Promoting hope,
Helping consumers to know that they are not alone,
Believing in each person's capacity to take control of their experience and recover,
Encouraging people to come together and feel safe in sharing their experiences and coping strategies,
Working collaboratively and inclusively with other services to develop knowledge and achieve holistic approaches to recovery, and
Fostering and supporting consumer independence and empowerment.

Intervoice is an international online community for voice hearers.
Masses of information, highly recommended

We say: Accept that the voices are real and belong to you. Accept that the voices may have meaning (metaphoric or literal) based on your life experiences.

Whilst it is the case that some people define hearing voices as a symptom of medical illness, other voice hearers are able to live with their voices and consider them as a positive (or at least manageable) part of their lives.
In this section we provide lots of information about what it is like to hear voices, good and bad:





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The experience of hearing voices
Why call this experience “hearing voices”;
What is it like to hear voices?;
Practical information for family, friends and mental health workers;
Three phases found among people who hear voices: Anxiety, impact, organisation and stabilisation;
Bereavement and hearing voices,
An exercise in how to replicate the experience of hearing voices,
Hidden demons : A personal account of hearing voices
Making Friends with Voices: hearing voices and dissociation



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Understanding and coping with hearing voices

Finding meaning in voices;
Making Sense of Voices;
Talking with Voices;
Voices and their relationship with the voice hearer;
Hearing voices that are distressing: Self-help resources and strategies;
Coping with voices strategies;
Research into coping with hearing voices
An Alternative Support Model to the Medical Model of Medication



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The meaning of hearing voices

Are voices a symptom of illness or a variety of human experience?;
Psychiatry and hearing voices;
Hearing voices amongst “normal” people;
Redefining hearing voices;
Hearing voices and schizophrenia;
Voice hearing in history and religion



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Children and hearing voices

Silencing unwelcome voices in children;
Most children hearing voices stop within three years;
Children hearing voices study 1996 – 2001;
‘She was like a personal coach’: An account of hearing voices as a child;
They would set her impossible tasks’: An account of hearing voices as a child;
Conference for Children Who Hear Voices: A Report




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Positive voices and Recovery stories

Recovering from voices by changing your relationship with them;
The mad doctor: The extraordinary story of Dr Rufus May, the former psychiatric patient;
The recovery position;
How I tamed the voices in my head;
Jan Holloway & J. Thomas: Learning from voices;
‘I learned to live with voices’;
Odi Oquosa: Artist and Shaman;
Ron Coleman: Recovery an Alien Concept;
Alessandra’s story;
Research and related articles on recovering from overwhelming voices;
Research and related articles on positive and pleasurable voices

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Ethical conferencing, training and therapy from our friend Caroline

User Friendly Psychiatry Ltd (UFP) is a private company providing consultancy, training and cognitive behaviour psychotherapy services. Established in 2005, UFP has enjoyed steady growth.

UFP is managed by Caroline Williams, a Registered Mental Health Nurse and Accredited Cognitive & Behavioural Psychotherapist. All services provided by UFP are led & delivered by Caroline and our team of associates.

UFP associates are carefully selected for their experience, contribution to the field of mental health and expert skills.

Terms of Use

CASL has no control over the content or security of any of the sites referred to by the above links and we are therefore unable to guarantee the accuracy or security of the information they contain. Whilst we have found from our own usage that the sites represent a valuable resource for persons interested in Campaign against schizophrenia, we cannot accept liability for any loss or damage that might arise from your use of these sites.