Listening to Voices: Creative disruptions with the hearing voices network

Listening to Voices: Creative Disruptions with the Hearing Voices Network is a research project that tries to understand how we can listen to voices that we find difficult, disruptive or challenging, whether these seem to come from inside or outside ourselves. It has been created by voice-hearers, academics and independent artists who are interested in asking why and how we silence voices in ourselves or others and how we might help increase understanding about the experience of hearing voices. Together we have created a companion to voice-hearing - Listen (If you Dare) - an interactive web version of the companion and a sound piece.
These works are challenging and are intended to raise awareness, empathy and understanding about the nature of voice-hearing experiences among support providers, families, friends and the wider public. They create space not only for voice-hearers, but for the voices they hear to be made visible and audible. These works seek to subvert and disrupt traditional ways of thinking about voice-hearing experiences and the silencing strategies that stop us from listening. We have begun creatively applying what we have learnt through co-producing these works to different forms of research (see Further Research section). By doing this we hope to encourage the practice and develop the skill of listening to voices that often go unheard.