Navigating Voice Hearing - Experiential Workshops- 1:30-2:15pm Supporting Voices in Times of Crisis - Cindy Marty Hadge, Sasha Bunbar
- 2:15-3pm Who Is Afraid of the Voices? Rebuilding the Social Link Through Theater and Voice Dialogue - Yulia Landa, PsyD, MS, Jessica Levitt, CDA, Michael Jacobs, PhD, Christina Asig, MD
Supporting Voices in Times of Crisis - Cindy Marty Hadge, Sasha Bunbar
There are a growing number of resources for supporting people who hear voices. However, Westernized society continues to resort to reactive responses more often than not when it comes to someone in crisis. This tendency only grows when the crisis involves voices who may be talking about suicide or hurting others. Yet, research increasingly tells us that carceral responses that take power away from people in distress can actually worsen the risk of both.This workshop will teach people how to support individuals who hear voices* and are having experiences that may be interpreted as crisis. Through the use of presentation, video, demonstrations and roleplays, participants will learn to interpret what is and isn’t a crisis and how to support the person in understanding and moving through the experience in real time.*’Hearing voices’ is an umbrella term and includes people who have visions, unusual beliefs and other non-consensus reality experiences.
Who Is Afraid of the Voices? Rebuilding the Social Link Through Theater and Voice Dialogue - Yulia Landa, PsyD, MS, Jessica Levitt, CDA, Michael Jacobs, PhD, Christina Asig, MD
Voice hearing is often understood as a private symptom, yet many voices speak the language of relationships—criticizing, threatening, blaming, excluding, or demanding. This interactive workshop explores how theatrical role-play can transform voice hearing from an isolating internal experience into a shared social encounter that invites dialogue, reflection, and connection. Drawing on lived experience, dialogical approaches to psychosis, and our previous work on theater as a means of understanding and normalizing psychosis, presenters will demonstrate how role-play can help individuals develop new ways of relating to voices through curiosity, boundary-setting, and self-advocacy. Participants will engage in experiential exercises and discussion designed to illuminate voices as relational experiences rather than simply symptoms. The workshop will also explore how capacities developed in dialogue with voices—such as setting limits, challenging accusations, and asserting one's perspective—may generalize to relationships with family members, partners, peers, and the broader community, supporting recovery as a process of reconnection and disalienation.
