The World Voices Congress was held this year in Copenhagen in late September. The Congress is an annual global gathering of voice-hearers and people who are interested in the phenomena from over twenty countries. Over 300 people attended. The Congress was organised by the Danish Hearing Voices Network – Psykovision.dk. The theme of the conference was: ‘Reclaiming Our Lives’.

This annual event brings together voice-hearers, loved ones and other allies in a two-day event that explores and celebrates the diversity of voice-hearing, vision-seeing and related human experiences. It is a space where people from across the world come to connect with, and learn from, one another.

The event was held in a large sports hall. There was a main venue and four smaller rooms where presentations were made. Some of the presentations were beautiful testimonies of recovery, acceptance and meaning – making in people who had experienced unusual sensory experiences in their lives. Others were related to tapering psychiatric drugs, wildness, the healing power of art, archetypal voices, voices and visions in literature, ways of working with voices, mdma-assisted psychotherapy, intentional peer support, the Maastricht interview and many others.

The atmosphere was cordial, friendly and where many friends new and old meet.
There have been over twenty World Voices Congress’ to date. They carry on the work initially started in Holland in the 70s/80s by Marius Romme, Sandra Escher and Patsy Hague in making commonplace and understandable what was often confined for life behind the high walls of psychiatric institutions. And historically massively stigmatised as ‘schizophrenia’.

We can recover from the delusions, unusual beliefs often initially manifest in the condition and may eventually come to the point of accepting our voices, visions and other unusual sensory experiences. Making meaning of these experiences is also part of the approach i.e. making sense of the nature and content of our voices. This approach attempts to be compassionate and choice – based, which is in stark contrast to the ‘search & destroy’ approach of the psychiatry those among us who are older have most likely experienced.

Overall, this Congress is well worth attending for anybody interested in this area of mental health. Next year’s World Voices Congress is being held in Prague, Czech Republic 10-11 October 2025 and is themed: From Childhood to Adulthood. Registration is open: https://fokus-praha.cz/hearingvoices-congress2025/