Narrative changes about « voices » following a contextual group therapy for people with psychosis

Narrative changes about “voices” following a contextual group therapy for people with psychosis

Auteurs : T. Lan­glois, A. Bour­cier, P. Lamy, M. Lher­mine, S. Cal­la­han, T. Lecomte

Réfé­rence : Psy­cho­sis (vol. 13, 2021, Issue 1, pp. 35 – 46)

Abstract

Back­ground. To deter­mine the impact of a contex­tual group CBT inter­ven­tion for voices on the nar­ra­tives of people with psychosis

Method. Nar­ra­tives from 10 par­ti­ci­pants with psy­cho­sis and hea­ring audi­to­ry hal­lu­ci­na­tions, who par­ti­ci­pa­ted in a group inter­ven­tion for voices, were col­lec­ted and ana­ly­sed, before and after the intervention.

Results. Four main themes emer­ged from the phe­no­me­no­lo­gi­cal ana­ly­sis of the participant’s nar­ra­tives regar­ding their voices : ‘repre­sen­ta­tion of voices’, ‘expla­na­tions given to hea­ring voices’, ‘unfol­ding and appea­rance of voices, and ’reac­tions and emo­tio­nal mana­ge­ment of voices’. It was pos­sible to iso­late sub-cate­go­ries within the four main (or super­or­di­nate) themes that evol­ved fol­lo­wing the inter­ven­tion, reflec­ting the psy­cho­lo­gi­cal and beha­viou­ral pro­cesses at work invol­ved in res­ponse to the voices. The iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of these pro­cesses made it pos­sible to unders­tand how a contex­tual group CBT inter­ven­tion for voice mana­ge­ment could concre­te­ly help those who receive it.

Conclu­sion. A contex­tual group inter­ven­tion for the mana­ge­ment of audi­to­ry hal­lu­ci­na­tions in people with psy­cho­sis seems to improve the abi­li­ty to des­cribe, accept, and manage voices, as well as to encou­rage par­ti­ci­pants to relate dif­fe­rent­ly, in a more pea­ce­ful way, with them.