rmohammed2017 All, Uncategorized

New Support Group in Vancouver

Hi all,

We’d like to announce a new support group in Vancouver based on the International Hearing Voices Network. This one meets at Open Door Group on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Our Friday Group continues to meet as does our Hearing Voices Network Study Club. Check out the “groups” section of the website to see a full listing.

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rmohammed2017 Conferences and Events, Uncategorized

World Hearing Voices Congress, 2017

I recently had the privilege of attending the 9th Annual World Hearing Voices Congress, held this year, in Boston, USA. Below is an account of the event and what I experienced.

Day One

The event ran from August 16-18. The first day was titled “Intervoice Day – Making Connections and Learning from Experience”. What, you may ask, is Intervoice? The conference literature describes it as follows:

“Intervoice aims to support the International Hearing Voices Movement by connecting people, sharing ideas, distributing information, highlighting innovative initiatives, encouraging high quality respectful research and promoting its values across the world.”

So…what about this Hearing Voices Movement, you may wonder?

“The International Hearing Voices Movement consists of the diverse conversations, initiatives, groups and individuals around the world that share some core values. These include: hearing voices, seeing visions and related phenomena as meaningful experiences that can be understood in many ways; hearing voices is not, in itself, an indication of illness – but difficulties coping with voices can cause great distress; when people are overwhelmed by their experiences, support offered should be based on respect, empathy, informed choice and an understanding of the personal meaning hearing voices have in someone’s life.”

Day one of the event began with a “Welcome to Everyone’s Voices”. We learned that there are 33 countries with Hearing Voices Networks around the world. Canada, for example, has groups in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. I didn’t realize until this event, that Quebec has 30 hearing voices groups. There’s something for British Columbia to aspire to!

The folks from Montreal said a few words, as did Kevin Healey, Canada’s National Hearing Voices Network Representative who is based in Toronto. We also learned that the 2019 World Hearing Voices Congress will be held in Canada: Montreal to be specific. Wow.

We listened as people shared their experiences, witnessed the announcement of Intervoice Awards recipients and took part in “open space” discussions with other voice hearers and allies. It was a powerful feeling to see so many voice hearers, vision seers and others with unusual experiences gathered together to openly talk about their experiences and insights in an atmosphere of acceptance.

Day Two

Days two and three focused more on presentations and workshops. Keynote speakers for day two were Dirk Corstens, Lisa Forestell, Gogo Ekhaya Esima, Marty Hadge and Akiko Hart. Sadly, my notes don’t specify who said what, but some comments that stood out to me included:

  • “My experience is real, relevant, important and meaningful”.
  • Sometimes the messages from voices get really big and dramatic to get me to pay attention.
  • A voice telling you to kill yourself may actually be about something in your life that needs to die.
  • Voices can cause you to examine what you really believe.
  • Connection may be a better response to hopelessness than hope.

After the keynotes on day two, we had a wide range of workshops to choose from, including: Putting a Face to your Voice, Creating Safe Space for Children, Journal Writing for Voice Hearers, A Conversation on Gender and Sexuality, Film Screening: Hearing Voices, Hearing Voices Research, Psychosis and Spirituality, Drummers and Dreams: Driven “Sane” in Indian Country, Accepting our Voice, How to Survive College as a Voice Hearer, plus many others.

Day Three:

Keynote presentations were from Noel Hunter, Barry Floyd, David Walker and Val Resh. Workshops we could choose from were just as varied as during the previous day and included: People of Color and the Hearing Voices Network, Death by a Thousand Cuts, A Family’s Journey with Unseen Voices and Pictures, Behind Locked Doors and Without Walls, An Open Space Discussion Around Open Dialogue, Fluidity of Self, Sketch Journals in Crisis and Recovery, Hearing Voices, Living Fully, Rethinking Insight, Permeability and Talking Back to our Voices, Shamanism to Schizophrenia, plus others.

Workshop On Research

One workshop I attended was on Hearing Voices Research delivered by Gail Hornstein who is a psychology professor and teaches research methods to undergraduate students. Gail is interested in the politics and history of research methodology. She notes that research is highly political. There was a huge amount of research funded by tobacco companies saying that tobacco was good for you – not bad for you. Psychiatric medication is researched by pharmaceutical companies who are far from unbiased. She asks questions such as:

  • Why are quantitative methods in psychology more valued than qualitative?
  • What are the issues that we hardly ever get to talk about?
  • Who designs research?
  • What is measured?
  • What are the politics, values, and ethics behind what you want to know?
  • What is taken to be an outcome?
  • What is evidence, what does it mean? How do we decide? Who decides?
  • What constitutes rigorous?
  • What constitutes well controlled?
  • Who decides what standardized assessment tools to use?

Gail Hornstein and Jacqui Dillon are doing a qualitative study of hearing voices groups in the U.S. Their research team is made up of half voice hearers and half academic researchers working together. Gail says that the qualities that make hearing voices groups distinctive make it difficult to study them. She asks:  Does each person have to find the group helpful for the same reason that other people do to find it effective? She talked about how taking out the richness of peoples’ experience makes statistics not objective. She notes that one of the greatest strengths of the Hearing Voices Network is that it doesn’t claim that one approach will work for all; you have to acknowledge variability. Qualitative research lends itself well to the richness and diversity of experience and value within hearing voices groups. She also made a point of saying hearing voices groups are not anti-psychiatry, a claim that I sometimes hear.

Final Thoughts

I left the Hearing Voices Congress feeling excited. It was amazing to be with hundreds of other voice hearers, vision seers and others with unusual experiences, many of who valued those experiences. The atmosphere was positive, supportive and accepting. And it was very clear that it is absolutely possible to live well with these experiences. We can all lead good lives. Hearing voices is part of the continuum of human experience. What a wonderful message.

rmohammed2017 Art, Uncategorized

Art and Thoughts on Extreme States and Unusual Experiences – by Ronda E. Richardson

First Image

There is important information contained in extreme states and experiences. I am beginning to find meaning in it, but for many years I refused to listen. I silenced my monsters with bullying and medication. Turns out my angriest pieces were also the most hurt. With the Hearing Voices Network I found a safe place to embrace every part of me including the disgruntled voice inside my head.

Caught Red Handed - meant to be second image

 

I see extreme states in full color. Pink is the color of euphoria. I often felt I had been caught pink handed when a medical professional noticed the energy I was attempting to hide. The response to it was often panicked and punishing. When I attended the HVN Facilitator training it was the first time I was able to talk about my experiences without feeling afraid or guilty.

Ronda's Image

Ronda E. Richardson is an Artist and Writer looking to bring awareness to the stories of people often made invisible by diagnosis and trauma. Between forced treatment as a teenager and diagnosis at 26, she worked in long-term care and with Emergency Medical Services. She was training to become a Paramedic and worked with children who needed extra support to succeed in a world that was not built for their gifts and challenges.

rmohammed2017 Personal Story, Uncategorized, Video

Mental Health Matters – Hearing Voices video pick

In honor of mental health week, here’s another hearing voices video pick. This video is one of the one’s we’ve discussed in the Hearing Voices Network Study Club.

Hearing voices can be a scary thing, but did you know it can also provide comfort to some? In this video, from peerstv, host Shannon Eliot chats with Adrian Bernard about the concept of hearing voices – the good, the bad, and what most people don’t know.

rmohammed2017 Personal Story, Uncategorized, Video

Video Pick: Eleanor Longden TED Talk

Hi all,

We thought we’d start featuring video picks related to the international hearing voices network. Below, you’ll find a TED Talk featuring voice hearer Eleanor Longden. It’s a video we have discussed at our local Hearing Voices Network Study Club. Check out the Vancouver Groups section of this webpage for information on the Study Club. Eleanor is living proof of something many of us have learned through our own experience: that although voices can be difficult for some of us, we can still move forward, experience success and live well. Enjoy 🙂

rmohammed2017 Uncategorized

Voices Groups Make a Difference by Renea Mohammed

 

meeting

I recently spoke to someone who hears voices. She prefers that her name not be used and that she be identified by the pseudonym: West Coast Girl. She was diagnosed with schizencephaly, an extremely rare developmental birth defect characterized by abnormal slits, or clefts, in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain and which, in her case, has lead to the experience of hearing voices – voices that no one else can hear. The voices left her questioning what was real and what was not.

She also felt isolated by the experience and was thrilled to find a group made up of other voice hearers. She told me she was “so happy from the first meeting”. Everything people were saying related to what she was experiencing. She felt a sense of security in the group. She was not alone. People were saying things that “really clicked”.

She learned a new coping strategy: take a problem and put it in a box. Put the box out of reach. Keep it closed. Then, when you are ready, bring it out and deal with it.

She’s also developed her own strategies. She prays to St. Jude, the Patron Saint for impossible situations: the saint to pray to when things just look like they won’t turn out well. When she’s struggling she prays every day for 9 days. She tries to keep her mind focussed on prayer when she is stressed. She tries to get her brain calmed down through the process. She says she does it at bed time and it really helps. It’s the strongest coping tool she’s found so far. When things work out, she gives thanks that the problem was solved.

She’s shared this approach in the group and also heard about how others cope. She looks forward to going. When I asked her if she’d recommend it to someone else, she said she would.

The group West Coast Girl attends is a North Vancouver support group based on the International Hearing Voices Network. Similar groups have sprung up in Vancouver Community and in Tertiary Mental Health Services. The Fraser Health Authority is also looking at starting a group as is Victoria.

The Hearing Voices Movement that lead to the development of Hearing Voices Network Support Groups was begun by Dr. Marius Romme, a professor of social psychiatry, science journalist Dr. Sandra Escher and voice hearer Patsy Hage in 1987 – after Hage challenged Romme about why he couldn’t accept the reality of her voice hearing experience. As one voice hearer, Ron Coleman, has said, if someone is hearing voices, something real is happening. The Hearing Voices Network began in 1988 with the support of Romme and has since expanded to countries and regions including Wales, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Hearing Voices Groups support people in learning ways to live well with their experiences, share strategies, make connections and know that they are not alone. The reputation of the Hearing Voices Network is growing as the limitations of a solely medical approach to voices become better know.

For information about the North Vancouver Hearing Voices Group call: 604-984-5000 extension 5167

For information about Vancouver Hearing Voices Network Groups call: 604-708-5276