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Experience Focussed Counselling with Voice Hearers as a Trauma-Sensitive Approach. Results of a Qualitative Thematic Enquiry

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Abstract

The individual approach of the Hearing Voices Movement, Experience Focussed Counselling or Making Sense of Voices, claims a strong life context and trauma focus. This qualitative study represented the first to explore whether Experience Focussed Counselling with voice hearers, when compared to Treatment As Usual, could be considered trauma-sensitive. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews with voice hearers and mental health professionals in routine German mental health settings were analysed as part of an Applied Thematic Analysis. Overall themes identified were: trauma related; dealing with emotions; process of working with voices; intra- and interpersonal life; and coping related. Experience Focussed Counselling was considered helpful in understanding and working on unresolved trauma-related areas of distress. The same did not apply to Treatment As Usual. Findings support Experience Focussed Counselling as a trauma-sensitive intervention in hearing voices. Frontline mental health staff can potentially support voice hearers in identifying and working on trauma-related voices and emotions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EFC Institute, Westende 3, 24806, Hohn, Germany

    J. K. Schnackenberg

  2. Stiftung Diakoniewerk Kropp & St Ansgar gGmbH, Kropp, Germany

    J. K. Schnackenberg

  3. DHSC Education and Training Centre/Cabinet Office, Learning and Development (LEaD) Team, Keyll Darree, Strang, Isle of Man

    M. Fleming

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute for Clinical and Applied Health Research (ICAHR), University of Hull, Hull, UK

    C. R. Martin

Authors
  1. J. K. Schnackenberg
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  2. M. Fleming
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  3. C. R. Martin
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Contributions

JS co-designed the study, undertook data collection and drafted the manuscript. CM co-designed the study, supervised the project and checked the text for accuracy; MF supervised the project and checked the text for accuracy.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. K. Schnackenberg.

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Conflict of interest

No financial support was received and this research was instead based largely on the good will of participating mental health professionals and persons who hear voices at the participating research sites. The first author conducted the study as part of a self-funded PhD at the University of the West of Scotland (in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences, Faculty V, Hanover, Germany). He is a freelance trainer at the efc Institut, specialising in the provision of training and supervision in Experience Focussed Counselling. He received no fees for the provision of EFC training and supervision during the study. Following completion of the study he was unexpectedly offered and accepted employment with the St Ansgar gGmbH, Kropp, which had taken part in the study. No financial gain was expected.

Additional information

Please note: care was taken to use non-pathologising language in line with Hearing Voices Movement suggestions, i.e. using voice hearing instead of auditory hallucinations or non-shared reality instead of delusions.

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Schnackenberg, J.K., Fleming, M. & Martin, C.R. Experience Focussed Counselling with Voice Hearers as a Trauma-Sensitive Approach. Results of a Qualitative Thematic Enquiry. Community Ment Health J 54, 997–1007 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-018-0294-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-018-0294-0

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