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Taking Back Our Power: Self-help/Peer Support

MCHVN Groups are social environments that encourage and promote:

• Self-empowerment

• Interdependence

• A view of participants as experts by experience

Hearing Voices Network Groups provide:

• Acceptance and a sense that one is not alone

• A safe place to talk about voices and visions

• An opportunity to learn what the voices mean and how to gain control over the experience

• An opportunity to build stronger social networks and supports

Voice hearers in Hearing Voices Network Groups:

• Share experiences

• Explore different ways of managing and coping with voices

• Access information and resources and learn about the recovery process

 

A Few Words from a Group Member

When I first learned I had other people sharing space in my mind and body, I really didn't know if I belonged in the Hearing Voices support group, but I pretended I was brave, and logged into a Zoom meeting. Within a couple minutes, [the facilitator] had welcomed me and asked me what was going on in my life, like he actually was curious about me. He didn't bat an eyelash at a single thing I said!

 

For the first time in my life, I found people who seemed to be able to accept me, no matter what kind of weird experiences I had. No one's ever judged me, or criticized me or even offered advice, and that's so crucial for me, because I tend to back into isolation and darkness at the slightest sign of people telling me what to do or what's wrong with me. 

 

Over the last few years, I've shared so much that I've never shared, not even in other support groups. We've talked about everything: family, hospitals, medications, what the voices or people are, how to relate to them, how to not relate to them, and through it all, I've made friends and finally come to feel like I'm not so alone. They've encouraged me in my own efforts to start support groups for people like me. I've even taken the facilitator training program. 

 

I wish I had had access to a group like this all my life. I think if everyone had a place to be themselves without judgment and criticism, like the "Taking back our power" group does so well, the world would be a lot better place! 

-Constellation David

Taking Back Our Power

Join us for our hearing voices groups. These groups are open to anyone with the experience of hearing voices, or experiencing other phenomena not shared by others. We offer a non-clinical, non-judgmental environment for free and open discussion away from traditional psychiatric treatment. If you hear, see, smell, or feel things that other people can’t perceive, this group is for you. Everything that happens in the meetings in confidential. We’re available for you twice a week, in three Montgomery County locations.

Mondays (beginning August 12, 2024)

3pm (EST)

Hopeworx

1210 Stanbridge St.

Norristown, PA 19401

Tuesdays

2:30 pm (EST)

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church

2nd floor, Middleton Center

625 Montgomery Ave

Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

Thursdays

1 pm (EST)

Trinity Reformed Church

60 N. Hanover Street

Pottstown, PA 19464

Enter in rear of church on King Street, ring bell to enter

Voices Learning Community (online only)

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion to introduce the hearing voices experience.. May people have the experience of hearing voices, or experience other sensory phenomena not shared by others. If this sounds like you, or you are trying to support someone in your life who is struggling with these experiences, the Voices Learning  Community will introduce you to a nonclinical environment where you will have the opportunity to speak with people with the hearing voices experiences who live productive and fulfilling lives.  Everyone is welcome, including family members, medical professionals, and anyone else interested in discovering an alternative viewpoint on the hearing voices experience.

2nd Thursday of the Month

6pm (EST)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81646904585

Meeting ID: 816 4690 4585

If you are looking for a local online hearing voices group, our friend Eric Ayers from Delaware County, offers Alternative Perceptions. Click here for more information.

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MONTGOMERY COUNTY HEARING VOICES NETWORK (MCHVN)

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