Dr Sam Warner: 'Visions, voices, dissociated parts and child sexual abuse: from living life in crisis to moving on to recovery', Joint Special Interest Group in Psychosis, 24 February 2016

In this talk, Sam Warner demonstrates how visions, voices and dissociated parts sometimes develop in response to the overwhelming trauma of child sexual abuse. She explores how splitting parts off in these ways helps people to mentally survive the trauma of abuse, but can also cause additional stress, which may undermine their recovery. This is particularly the case when services view visions, voices and dissociated parts as symptoms of mental disorder, rather than as meaningful and potentially helpful starting points for recovery. Drawing on her work with children and adults who hear voices, see visions and experience different identities, she demonstrates how victims of childhood sexual abuse can be supported to use their visions, voices and dissociated parts to understand abuse-trauma and to provide direction for recovery