Voice-hearers’ understanding and experience of help: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Objectives: The literature on voice-hearers’ experience of help is relatively scant and the forms of help studied tend to be defined by researchers. The present study aims to contribute to the extant literature by exploring what help means to voice-hearers and how they experience it in the context of their lives. Method: Six participants who identified as voice-hearers and who had experiences of help took part in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: The analysis produced four superordinate themes representing different facets of voice-hearers’ lived experience of help. These were: 1. Treat me like a human being; 2. The darker side of help; 3. Like moving to a new country; and 4. Becoming agents of change. Conclusions: Voice-hearers are very aware of and sensitive to the interpersonal nature of help and this can have a profound influence on whether their experiences of help are positive or negative. Importantly, voice-hearers’ relationship with their voices can be a source of help as well as distress. It is possible that voice-hearers do not need help for voices but rather for the underlying trauma of which voices may be a manifestation. Finally, help can be experienced as a journey and this conceptualisation may usefully inform clinical practice