The World Hearing Voices Congress 2024 will be held in the Danish capital Copenhagen on 26 and 27 September. The theme of the congress is: Reclaiming Our Lives.
You can now book your place via the Congress website: https://psykovision.dk/the-world-hearing-voices-congress-2024/
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 strength of the World Hearing Voices Congress comes from the diversity of people who contribute to it.
Most people who hear voices live full lives, where the voices are experienced as a natural part of their existence. Natural doesn’t always mean that this is an easy experience, however. Whilst voices can be inspiring and connective, they can also have a detrimental impact on the person and their lives.
Some people who hear voices experience being categorised as mentally ill, a process that can bring its own negative consequences – over and above any difficulties linked to the voices themselves.
The hosts have chosen the title of the congress – Reclaiming Our Lives – because they want to put the right to define, describe and navigate the experience back in the hands of people who hear voices. By framing voice-hearing as a natural human experience, they resist the pathologisation that is becoming commonplace. Rather than seeing distressing voice-hearing experiences as fundamentally different to more pleasant ones, they view all experiences as meaningful.
When people are distressed or troubled by the voices they hear, or visions they see, it can be a message pointing to issues that the person is struggling with. Within the international Hearing Voices Movement many people have found that taking an exploratory, curious and respectful approach to the voices has been a helpful path.
At this Congress there will be many people who have experienced this process. Through the many different contributions to the Congress they will explore hearing voices as a natural human phenomenon that should not be pathologised or stigmatised.
The development of the Congress is a dynamic and collaborative process. New ideas arise as people from across the world offer to contribute to the Congress in different ways. We will continuously adapt the program and the social events on the congress website. You can also follow the progress of the congress on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/world.hearing.voices.congress.in.copenhagen/
