What is the Hearing Voices Movement?

The Hearing Voices Movement is an international movement that reframes how we think about experiences like hearing voices. The movement got its start in the Netherlands in 1987, with professor of social psychiatry Dr. Marius Romme, science journalist Dr. Sandra Escher, and voice hearer Patsy Hage – after Hage challenged Romme about why he couldn’t accept the reality of her voice hearing experience. Hage and Romme went on to appear on Dutch television together and seek responses from the public about their voice hearing experiences. Hundreds of viewers called in, and the first Hearing Voices Congress was held that year.

The Hearing Voices movement challenges conventional wisdom in a few ways, like the idea that hearing voices necessarily needs to be understood as an illness. The Hearing Voices Movement approaches unique sensory experiences as just another part of the spectrum of human experience, like feeling intensely emotional – something that might be upsetting at times, but might be positive at others. These experiences can be personally or culturally meaningful, and Hearing Voices support groups provide a space to explore what voices and other unique sensory experiences mean for the individual experiencing them.

Although the Hearing Voices Movement recognizes that experiences like hearing voices can be a challenge for people in their day-to-day lives, it also recognizes that it is possible to live well with them. At Hearing Voices support groups, people who hear voices are encouraged to talk about our experiences openly, to share our own interpretations, and to exchange ideas about how to live well with voices. Acceptance, community, and celebration of the diversity of our experiences is at the core of the Hearing Voices Movement.