Corina McSwan is a trauma survivor, peer support worker, and facilitator. She also hears voices that no-one else can hear, and sometimes has disturbing visions. Rebecca Moran is a trauma survivor and trainer who does not hear voices, but has battled strikingly similar internal dialogues. Both suffer fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Through sharing their experience, and the insights gained through many years of striving to heal, these two women hope to highlight and explain the link between trauma - in particular complex childhood trauma - and voice-hearing, and to begin to unravel the purposes that voices may serve in surviving and processing complex trauma. Delegates are invited to explore the remarkable ways in which the human brain and body adapt and communicate in order to bear the unbearable, and speak the unspeakable. Pain refuses to be denied, feelings demand to be felt, buried suffering will surface, and through this we discover the maps to our own recovery. Research shows that the majority of people who hear voices have experienced trauma. Understanding and acknowledging the prevalence and power of this link has life-changing implications for both those who suffer distressing voices and those who seek to support them.

Aim
The Hearing Voices Network WA aims to raise awareness in the general community of the phenomenon of hearing voices; in doing so gain an acceptance of what has been seen up until now as a disability to be cured.

Method
Establishing community based peer support groups in conjunction with other mental health organisations. Each group led by a support worker with the lived experience of hearing voices and trained in the Hearing Voices Approach. This approach encourages individuals to embrace their experiences and recognise triggers and moods which might affect the frequency and detail of the voices.

Outcomes
Thirteen groups have been established including a group at a local prison. Eight more groups are in advance stages of establishment. Each group provides a holistic approach to the phenomenon of hearing voices by challenging the conventional wisdom of attempting to remove voices. Instead individuals are encouraged to learn to live with the voices. Each group on average assists six members every week.

Conclusion
Continued networking with established mental health services will see an increased provision of a more contemporary approach to a phenomenon that whilst well documented historically has been marginalised by society in general.

For well over a decade a range of training and workshops in the hearing voices approach has been delivered to mental health professionals around Australia. Such training is increasingly sought after with courses often filling quickly which is a clear demonstration of the interest and demand that abounds. However, the question remains as to “how many people who have been participants of such training feel sufficiently confident and supported to work with voice hearers together exploring voices work’ “? Such ‘deeper work’ might involve undertaking Maastricht interviews, profiling, mapping voices (and or visions etc) and dialoguing with voices and more? In our experience, many voice hearers report an ongoing difficulty locating a practitioner willing to walk alongside them as they commence their voices work. This leads us to conclude that such expertise is ‘thin on the ground’ and that more than training is required for individuals to make the shift from a participant of education and training in the hearing voices approach to becoming a hearing voices approach practitioner. This paper, will share the creative ways we use to support professional development of the workforce in the area of working with voices. We will discuss our Maastricht Champions Study Program, Critical Reflection Groups and our newly initiated ‘Mental Health Professionals Network Hearing Voices Approach Community of Practice’ all of which work toward deepening staff skills and professional knowledge of the approach and provide a space to work through fears, questions and issues of power, while building inner capacity and confidence in order to increase effectiveness in working with people who hear voices in ways that honour lived experience and value expertise by experience.