Dear reader, Most of the papers that can be downloaded from the Narrative Therapy Library and Bookshop were originally published in the International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. We recommend this peer-reviewed journal to practitioners who wish to stay in touch with the latest ideas and developments in narrative therapy. This journal offers hopeful and creative ideas for counsellors, social workers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and community workers. In each issue, practitioners from a range of different countries discuss the ideas and practices that are inspiring them in their work, the dilemmas they are grappling with, and the issues most dear to their hearts. Their writings are easy-to-read while remaining rigorous and thoughtful. The first section of each issue revolves around a particular theme, while the second consists of a collection of practice-based papers on various topics. The journal is produced four times a year. If you wish to stay in touch with the latest developments in narrative practice, we hope you will subscribe and become a part of our community of readers! To subscribe If you wish to subscribe to this journal, please contact your local distributor: North America: Narrative Books (USA) [email protected] UK: Narrative Books (UK) [email protected] Australia & elsewhere: Dulwich Centre Publications: [email protected] Ask about current special offers for new subscribers! Narrative Therapy Library and Bookshop Back issues of the International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work are available for purchase via: www.narrativetherapylibrary.com This website makes it possible to research, browse, and purchase writings about narrative therapy. It contains an extensive bibliography about narrative therapy and community work which can be searched via author, title, or keyword. www.narrativetherapylibrary.com Email: [email protected] Dulwich Centre website: www.dulwichcentre.com.au Copyright The following material is copyright © Dulwich Centre Publications. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission. All enquiries should be made to the copyright owner at: Dulwich Centre Publications, Hutt St PO Box 7192, Adelaide, SA, Australia, 5000; email [email protected] Introducing the work of the Hearing Voices Network by David Denborough 1 I am sitting in the national office of the Hearing Voices Network in Manchester, UK. In the back of the room a self-help group for voice-hearers is being facilitated by Mickey de Valda. Today there are seven people discussing what the voices have been saying in the past week, how they have been dealing with this experience, and sharing both struggles and delights. Bursts of laughter occasionally fill the room. At other moments there is sadness and some aspects of the conversation are poignant. At the moment, one man is speaking about his attempts to meet up with one of his voices who he has come to love and cherish. Despite making arrangements to meet, whenever the moment arises, she does not appear. Mickey is kind, skilled and thoughtful. This is the only space for many of these folks to be able to talk about what their voices are saying and how they respond. At times the sharing of coping strategies is ingenious and participants regularly describe how these groups make a significant difference to their lives. Recently, a women’s group has been initiated (facilitated by Sharon de Valda) as have groups for Cantonese speakers and for gay and lesbian participants. In London, I’m told, the first group for deaf voice-hearers is also up and running. During the group a phone rings at the front of the office and is answered by another volunteer – Jon Williams. While I have been visiting there have been calls from all over the UK and also from different countries in Europe. Calls have come from as far away as Australia and the US. There are not many phone numbers that one can call to talk about the voices you are hearing and know that you will be listened to and responded to by someone who understands the experience. There are not too many places where you will be welcomed rather than ostracised for experiencing life differently than most. I listen as Jon listens carefully and calmly to the person at the other end of the phone. He asks the caller about their usual coping strategies, how they have dealt with similar crises before. He speaks about some of his own experiences, what is most helpful to him and to those he knows. When the caller is feeling more settled, he puts her in touch with a local Hearing Voices support group (there are now well over a hundred throughout the UK) and invites her to call back any time. While other members of the network attend to the group and the phone calls, Julie Downs and Chris Stirk welcome me generously and start to inform me about the work the Hearing Voices Network does in training and supporting mental health professionals. I am here to meet with them because they have agreed to give a keynote address at the 5th International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference (which was held in Liverpool in July). The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 2003 No.3 www.dulwichcentre.com.au 3 Not only are voice-hearers supporting one another in creative and moving ways, their work is also transforming understandings within the professional arena (see for instance British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology 2000). Through their work, an alternative view of the experience of voice-hearing is being put forward. This view steps completely outside pathological understandings; does not believe the experience of hearing voices has to be negative; passionately believes that it’s possible to live meaningful and satisfying lives while hearing voices; and shares strategies and processes that assist recovery from significant mental health crises. A gradual transformation is taking place in relation to the experience of hearing voices. What’s more, the members of the Hearing Voices Network are achieving these transformations despite significant obstacles that are routinely placed in their way – whether these be the effects of hostile voices; the effects of medication; or the effects of stigma and pathological interpretations of their lives. One of the themes that the members of the network consistently convey to me is that they understand their work as political in nature. There is an emphasis not only on metaphors of ‘recovery’ but also ‘liberty’ and ‘rights’. There is a clear commitment to explore how relations of class, gender, race and sexual identity influence the experience of hearing voices, and a clear determination that those who hear voices have the opportunity to define their own lives and ways of living. The Hearing Voices Network’s self-help groups are not simply viewed as therapeutic but also as forums for organising changes to the broader culture in which we live. They are interested in radically changing understandings of ‘normality’, ‘mental health’ and ‘psychiatry’ and believe that as voice-hearers they are in the ideal position to do so. As you read the following five papers which offer different perspectives on the work of the Hearing Voices Network, I hope you can imagine sitting in the national office in Manchester, with the sounds of the self-help group and the phone calls in the background. Each of these five papers were crafted from interviews, most of which took place in the national office. Each were given as keynote addresses at the 5th International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the kindness shown to me during my time in the UK by members of the Hearing Voices Network and those with whom they are linked. I’d particularly like to thank Sharon de Valda, Mickey de Valda, Terence McLaughlin, Julie Downs, Peter Bullimore, Warren Lowe, Chris Stirk, Rufus May, and Dr Phil Thomas. Note 1. David Denborough is the Staff Writer at Dulwich Centre Publications. Reference British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology, 2000: ‘Recent advances in understanding mental illness and psychotic experiences.’ The British Psychological Society. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work 4 2003 No.3 www.dulwichcentre.com.au The use of humour and other coping strategies by Jon Williams 1 Everyone’s experience of hearing voices is different. In this paper Jon Williams describes the ways in which he has come to live with the voices he hears and how humour plays a vital part. This paper also describes a number of creative coping strategies as well as discussing the influential work of the Hearing Voices Network. Keywords: humour, coping strategies, schizophrenia, Hearing Voices Network Initially, I only used to hear derogatory voices. And at times realise this is not going anywhere and you just want to get there were a lot of them. I remember being on a ward one day away, you walk out of the kitchen, out onto the street when the nurse told me it was dinner time. I said hang on a slamming the door. You are trying to escape, but the minute, and when she asked me what I was doing I told her, argument is still going on. You can still hear the other ‘I’m counting my voices’. She asked me where the voices person’s critical voice and you can still hear your own. You were and I told her that they were outside in the garden. She can’t leave the arguing behind. You can’t run from them.