Traumatic life experiences and voice hearing

Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship between traumatic life events and the hearing of voices in a group of people who have attended hearing voices support groups since 2015 or with whom support workers have met individually. Data collection was part of developmental and action research within the framework of the Hearing Voices Slovenia project. The findings show that more than half of the voice hearers reported traumatic events or periods of life, and more than half of these cases were sexual abuse and/or harassment, which typically occurred in the most intimate setting. In addition, our findings also showed that most people with this experience did not talk to anyone and had to deal with it alone, as they did not find appropriate social spaces or support networks. In many cases, we were able to find different types of substantive associations between traumatic event characteristics and voice characteristics. Our support work, either individually or in groups, was mostly based on the principle of non-directive listening rather than directive guidance, or on the principle of "witnessing". This means that, as a rule, we did not specifically encourage or deepen conversations about traumatic life events but accepted them as important and relevant topics in the work of the support groups.