While May's profession has traditionally tried to silence or ignore phantom voices, he takes a different approach with his patients. When someone says they're hearing voices he asks them if he 'can speak to the voice and ask it some questions'.
The answers are often surprising. Recently May was treating a patient called Flo. One of her voices—a character called ‘Top Dog’—struck up a conversation with May, and eventually asked for its own Facebook page. So they decided that Flo should create one.
‘And then [Top Dog] went on a forum for other people who hear voices and said, “Hey you lot, I'm a voice. Is anybody else out there a voice and they want to share ideas with me?",' May says.
Now there’s a whole community of voices online, who talk to each other from different countries around the world. ‘It's a collaborative thing,’ May says. ‘This approach is really a very different way of relating to our minds, where we embrace the diverse voices within us.’
Engaging with the voice—rather than shutting it out—is part of a new global movement rethinking how voice hearing should be treated.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/5125556The answers are often surprising. Recently May was treating a patient called Flo. One of her voices—a character called ‘Top Dog’—struck up a conversation with May, and eventually asked for its own Facebook page. So they decided that Flo should create one.
‘And then [Top Dog] went on a forum for other people who hear voices and said, “Hey you lot, I'm a voice. Is anybody else out there a voice and they want to share ideas with me?",' May says.
Now there’s a whole community of voices online, who talk to each other from different countries around the world. ‘It's a collaborative thing,’ May says. ‘This approach is really a very different way of relating to our minds, where we embrace the diverse voices within us.’
Engaging with the voice—rather than shutting it out—is part of a new global movement rethinking how voice hearing should be treated.
