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Changing relationship with voices: new therapeutic perspectives for treating hallucinations
Author(s) -
PérezÁlvarez Marino,
GarcíaMontes José M.,
PeronaGarcelán Salvador,
VallinaFernández Oscar
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/cpp.563
Subject(s) - psychology , mindfulness , omnipotence , perspective (graphical) , psychotherapist , experiential learning , experiential avoidance , anxiety , epistemology , psychiatry , philosophy , mathematics education , artificial intelligence , computer science
A growing body of research on verbal hallucinations shows the importance of beliefs about and relationships with the voices for their pathological course. In particular, beliefs about the omnipotence of the voices and the need to control them, and relationships with them that involve efforts to resist or fight them, have shown themselves to be more pathogenic than effective. Likewise, treatments aimed at eliminating the voices, be they based on medication or ‘traditional’ cognitive–behavioural therapy, have not always been successful. A series of strategies focused on changing relationships with the voices instead of trying to eliminate them—including mindfulness, acceptance, experiential role plays and re‐authoring lives—is emerging as a new perspective for the treatment of hallucinations. All of these strategies are based on the person, not on the syndrome, which also represents a new conception of the problem, in a phenomenological–social perspective, alternative to the predominant medical conception. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.