Table of Contents

1. The History of Hearing Voices 2. Current Theoretical Explanations Within Mental Healthcare 3. Non-medical Explanations of Voice Hearing 4. Children Who Hear Voices: The role of psychiatric treatment - Prof Sami Timimi 5. The Maastricht Interview for Children and Adolescents Hearing Voices: Research results 6. Exploring the Experience with the Maastricht Interview 7. Completing 'Voices' Jigsaw Puzzles - Jeanette Woolthuis 8. Children Hearing Voices and Trauma 9. Voice Collective: Learning from parents who've been there - Rachel Waddingham 10. 'Resonance Association' Advice for Parents - Thea Boom-Legierse 11. Parents' Experiences - Anne, Marie Louise and Karin

About the Author

Sandra Escher, MPhil, PhD, was a science journalist and worked as a senior researcher at the University of Maastricht, focusing on children hearing voices. She is now an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Community Mental Health, Birmingham City University. Marius Romme, MD, PhD, was Professor of Social Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of the University of Maastricht ( Netherlands) from 1974 to 1999, as well as Consultant Psychiatrist at the Community Mental Health Centre in Maastricht. He is now a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Community Mental Health, Birmingham City University. Together with Dr. Escher they focussed their research on the experience of hearing voices. This led to the hearing voice movement and to the estabishment of support groups for voice hearers world wide.The main result is that the voices which are heard have a function in the person's life and their characteristics are directly related to the person's emotional problems.This opens the recovery perspective for voice hearers.

Reviews

Through its combination of research, clinical insights, and first-person accounts, Children Hearing Voices provides its readers with extensive guidance and information not only for understanding voice hearing, but in reframing it as a meaningful experience that can be lived with rather than an unfortunate medical abnormality to be endured. The book equips parents and professionals with the necessary skills, confidence, and knowledge to explore and understand a child's voice hearing experiences and, most importantly, outlines the necessary resources for children to cope with their voices, any attendant emotional difficulties, and ultimately lead fulfilled, productive, and happy lives. Eleanor Longden, Bradford Primary Care Trust (UK) survivor-activist and trainer. The information and experiences presented in this book have broadened my understanding of voice hearing and how to support young people (and all people) who hear voices, in my counseling practice. The book is rich in information and examples of experiences that break down fixed medicalized views and stereotypes, nomalizing the experience and helping frame voice hearing in a broader context - they effectively re-frame voice hearing as 'a human characteristic and an indication of problems that need to be solved, instead of a psycho-pathological problem'. For anybody who supports children who hear voices, this is the book to read. Caroline Rosta, Counselor and psychotherapist (UK) in Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 2011.