Talking with Voices: A Survivor-Informed Dialogical Approach to Working with Distressing Voices

Historically, mental health services have dissuaded voice hearers from talking to or engaging with their voices, instead favoring distraction or suppression techniques. Many voice hearers, however, have pushed back on this approach and developed ways to talk and relate to their voices. Rooted in the work of the Hearing Voices Movement, the Talking with Voices approach involves a therapist speaking directly to an individual’s voices, and the voice hearer repeating the voice’s responses verbatim, with the aim of helping to create a more peaceful and understanding relationship between voice(s) an...Read mored voice hearer. This talk will provide a clinical and methodological overview of the Talking with Voices II trial, which is currently taking place across the UK.

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Learning Objectives

Define the current state of the evidence base for the Talking with Voices approach.
List the key clinical components of the Talking with Voices intervention.
Explain how voices with diverse presentations can be constructed as protective and functional in context.

Target Audience

This educational activity is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, and MFT's.

Learning Levels

All levels

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Live Interactive Webinar

01:00 PM EDT - 02:30 PM EDT

EARN 1.5 CE Credit Hours

About the speakers

Alison Branitsky, PhD

Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Alison Branitsky, PhD, is a lived-experience researcher at the University of Manchester and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. She currently works as a lived experience supervisor on the NIHR-funded Talking with Voices II trial, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel dialogical intervention on improving the relationship between voice(s) and voice hearer. She is likewise a member of the Hearing Voices Movement, a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network, and has conducted extensive research on understanding and implementing Hearing Voices Groups in various contexts.

Dirk Corstens, MD

Social Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist

My name is Dirk Corstens, and I live in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. I was trained in Schema-focused therapy, Voice Dialogue and Peer-supported Open Dialogue. I work as a social psychiatrist and psychotherapist in my private practice. One day a week, for people hearing voices; two days a week for social networks at two different settings: in Utrecht and the isle of Texel. Since 1992, I have collaborated in the hearing voices research project at Maastricht University initiated by Marius Romme and Sandra Escher. Together with them, I published several articles on voice hearing and most recently, the revised Dutch version of Making Sense of Hearing Voices. The English translation is expected in the fall (PCCS Books). I collaborate with Eleanor Longden and colleagues on the Talking with Voices research project at Manchester University.
For me, hearing voices is a natural experience, and the Talking with Voices approach is a very promising method that promotes making sense of voices and living with voices. My dream is that voice hearers find and support each other, don’t go into the medication-oriented psychiatric system, and that when you tell people that you hear voices it is a start of a conversation and evokes curiosity.

Agenda

5 minute introduction

60 minute presentation on Talking with Voices: A Survivor-Informed Dialogical Approach to Working with Distressing Voices

25 minute question and answer between the audience and presenter

CE Information - Earn 1.5 CE Credit Hours

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