Making Sense of Hearing Voices: A practical guide

'The original Making Sense of Hearing Voices book was a turning point in my life, giving me tools and ideas I could use in my own journey as a voice hearer. I was conscious, though, that the book wasn’t written for me. It was aimed at professionals. So, with this significantly revised edition, I was heartened to realise its scope has widened to include voice hearers and all those who care about them. The knowledge contained within these pages has the potential to connect with voice hearers and help them untangle what can be an overwhelming experience. That is a huge gift. When I was unwrapping this gift, eagerly reading its pages, I was struck by the way this approach connects with others – peer support and Open Dialogue, to name but a few. Seeing the authors make these connections felt like the start of a conversation that has the potential to revolutionise and humanise mental health care. That is at the heart of this approach – how can we, as humans, meet with other humans in distress and respect their experiences and insights? This book is part of a response to this question, and we need more.'
Rai Waddingham, voice hearer, practitioner and researcher

'What do voices mean? This question, explored in the lives and work of Patsy Hage, Marius Romme, Sandra Escher and Dirk Corstens, has fuelled a transformation in our understanding of voice hearing. Their reframing of voices as meaningful experiences equipped voice hearers, families and mental health professionals with new approaches for effecting positive change individually and collectively. Their insistence on listening to voice hearers and situating voices in the context of their hearer’s life history has also inspired a generation of researchers to develop richer, more nuanced accounts of what voices are and what they mean. Making Sense of Hearing Voices continues to unsettle narrow biomedical assumptions, open new directions for interdisciplinary research, and affirm that hearing voices is part of the diversity of human experience. It is and will remain indispensable to those committed to the empowerment of voice hearers and to understanding voices in all their complexity.'
Angela Woods, Professor of Medical Humanities and Director of the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University

'Engaging, inspiring, and remarkably free of jargon, Making Sense of Hearing Voices offers mental health professionals, families and people who hear voices a comprehensive guide to understanding and responding to this most human of experiences. Synthesising 30 years of research, clinical practice and the insights of voice hearers themselves, the authors offer an optimistic, pragmatic and useful approach, illuminated by numerous vivid examples. Their structured interview protocol, perfected over many years, helps to make sense of the experience, so that people can find ways to solve problems they may not have known how to deal with. By taking a non-judgmental attitude toward understanding why the person is hearing voices and the specific difficulties they cause, a recovery plan can start to take shape. And in a field like psychiatry, so often filled with polemic, the authors' thoughtful, non-doctrinaire, evidence-based approach to medication is refreshing and balanced. In every respect, this book is a major achievement!'
Gail A. Hornstein, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and author of Agnes's Jacket: A psychologist's search for the meanings of madness

'The work of Romme, Escher and Corstens presented in this book offers a unique perspective on what is traditionally framed as 'schizophrenia' or 'psychosis'. First, by asking the question: 'How does hearing voices make sense in the context of a person's life?', it provides a safe criterion through which anyone can decide for herself if what is being said about their experience has any practical value (no context = no value). Second, whether you're a voice hearer or you work or live with a person who hears voices, you will find in these pages concrete and operational ways to act and move beyond any feeling of powerlessness or disillusion you might be experiencing. Third, Romme, Escher, and Corstens' work helps people. It helps us all make sense of our experiences and find ways to act when we find ourselves stuck. Finally, their work also helps us all, as human beings, connect with and support each other. I hope this book will provide the opportunity for their work to influence others' lives as it has influenced mine since I discovered it 16 years ago. As my work as a therapist as well as a trainer in mental health has shown me, we all need the emancipatory prospects opened here.'
Yann Derobert, clinical psychologist, mental health trainer and founder of the French Hearing Voices Network

'This book is powerful and welcome reading for anyone who's had enough of the culture of diagnosis and disorder. Romme, Escher and Corstens invite us to listen differently, to see voice hearing not as a symptom to be silenced but as something deeply human, often rooted in people's unique stories, relationships and survival strategies. This revised edition offers a way forward that centres connection, reflection and personal agency, not drugs, diagnoses and disempowerment. It speaks directly to voice hearers, to the people around them, and to those working in 'mental health' who are ready to do things differently. It is a bold challenge to the psychiatric status quo and a deeply compassionate guide for anyone looking to move beyond oppressive medical model understandings.'
Jo Watson, psychotherapist, founder of adisorder4everyone.com and editor of the PCCS Drop the Disorder! books

'Making Sense of Hearing Voices offers a unique opportunity to explore the theory and practice of a social justice framework when working with voice hearers. The book describes the common human experience of expressing life events as meaningful realities. The approach its authors have developed has led to the emancipation of many voice hearers and has empowered professionals to return the operation of power and recognition of wisdom to the individuals concerned. The book provides understanding of how to support voice hearers through a process of mutual discovery and human-to-human relationship. The authors describe a construct that embraces phenomenological, humanistic and non-pathologising ways of understanding each person's unique reality. Building on the previous edition, the book provides practical, theoretical, and evidence-based content for experts by experience, experts by profession and any loving being seeking to walk alongside a voice hearer. Without this book and approach, the experiences of voice hearers worldwide may never have been heard, understood and valued as equal ways of being in the world. Making Sense of Hearing Voices is perhaps the most important practical contribution that we have ever known to the freedom, acceptance and possibility of hope for people who experience voices, visions and other altered states.'
Matt Ball, nurse practitioner, psychotherapist, previous and sometimes current hearer of voices

'This book is really important to help people who hear voices. It helps the person make sense of their voices, normalise them and create a relationship with them. It moves beyond the biological and genetic theories that have dominated psychiatry for so many years and produced negative outcomes. Through the approaches in this book, it seems more likely that advancing knowledge will lead to changes in the whole language of science and scientific workers. This book shows how hearing voices is a common human experience that occurs in 10-25% of the general population. When the voices are seen from a metaphorical perspective related to the person's experiences, they make sense. They are messengers that can bring difficult messages, but they are highlighting issues in the person's life that still need to be addressed. As we often say: 'Don't shoot the messenger' - they have something important to say.'
Peter Bullimore, proud voice hearer, mental health trainer and consultant

'Making Sense of Hearing Voices is a groundbreaking contribution that challenges decades of clinical convention. For too long, voice hearing has been seen as a symptom to be quieted and dismissed. Backed by the rigour of more than 30 years of research, clinical practice and powerful testimony from those with lived experience, Romme, Escher and Corstens offer compassionate, transformative, evidence-based alternatives. This scholarly work reframes voice hearing not as a problem to suppress but as a rich, meaning-filled experience to explore and understand. Its recovery-oriented methodology restores dignity, fosters empowerment, and offers genuine hope to individuals long misunderstood and silenced. Written by pioneers who are respected worldwide in this field, this book is an essential resource and manual for clinicians, educators and policymakers dedicated to ethical, human-centred mental health care. It urges the field to move beyond narrow symptom management and embrace a more holistic perspective, respecting and understanding the role voices play in hearer's lives. A seminal work, Making Sense of Hearing Voices belongs on every mental health professional's shelf. '
Seetha Subbiah, Chief of Psychological Services, Kidz Hideout Program and Centre for WellBeing, Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre, Singapore

'A powerful, inspiring exploration of the pioneering work of the Hearing Voices Movement, this book offers vital insights into voice hearing as a meaningful experience to be explored, rather than a symptom to be silenced, then reframes it through the lens of liberation, connection and hope. Essential reading for anyone seeking a more humane, empowering approach to mental distress, Making Sense of Hearing Voices shines a light on the transformative potential of shared experience and redefines what it means to truly listen.'
Dr Eleanor Longden, Honorary Research Fellow, Division of Psychology and Mental Health, University of Manchester, and Co-Director, Complex Trauma and Resilience Unit, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

'The contribution these authors have made to the reduction of suffering of people around the world cannot be understated. For far too long, voice hearers have felt misunderstood and disempowered, their lived experience at best invalidated and at worst demonised. With a balanced blend of deep insight and practical utility, this book is pivotal in turning the tide towards more compassionate engagement with voice-hearing perceptions and relationships, and with the valid emotional and social concerns that are underpinning them.'
Dr Charlie Heriot-Maitland, clinical psychologist and Director of Balanced Minds, UK and co-author of Relating to Voices Using CFT (2022) and author of Controlled Explosions in Mental Health (forthcoming)

'In Making Sense of Hearing Voices, Marius Romme, Sandra Esher and Dirk Corstens summarise perhaps the most important set of developments in the mental health field in recent years. While others have rightly critiqued the simplistic, pessimistic 'medical model' of biological psychiatry, especially in relation to psychosis, the Hearing Voices Movement has got on with creating viable alternatives, all over the world. This book explains how to respond to voice hearing and voice hearers in a sensible, humane, non-judgemental way that does not label or pathologise. Making sense of our experiences is inevitably better than fearing and suppressing them.'
Professor John Read, author of Models of Madness and A Straight Talking Introduction to the Causes of Mental Health Problems