A special message from Kym MC Minn Managing Director @ T and K Support Services

After completing the Hearing Voices Network facilitator training last year, I was intentional about not letting this knowledge sit on a shelf.

At T and K Support Services we support people who hear voices at all stages of their journey - including when things are messy, intense, and misunderstood.

Recently, I began supporting a person who has lived with voices for 16 years, referred by the assessment and Referral Court, largely without the level of support required. When we met, they were experiencing a level of psychosis that was deeply distressing, including physical pain from what they described as internal torture. For over a decade, their only support had been area mental health services. Despite best intentions, this alone did not meet the complexity of their needs.

Our initial focus was simple but critical: helping them feel safe supporting engagement with their treating team creating space for their experience to be understood While they were admitted to hospital, a NDIS plan for psychosocial disability was approved. They were discharged with supports in place - but the real work had only just begun.

Using the Hearing Voices approach, I quickly learned that timing, trust, and flexibility matter. For this person, the safest place to talk wasn’t in a clinical room, it was on long drives, with favourite music playing. That’s where trust formed. That’s where insight grew.

Recently, I supported them at a psychiatric review. The outcome? - significant reduction in antipsychotic medication, fewer sedating side effects, improved insight, motivation, and engagement When asked what had changed, the person said: "I now have support - and with my support, I’m changing my relationship with the voices". ” I’ve learned the voices don’t always tell me the truth".” I even have positive voices now.”

The psychiatrist was gobsmacked. So was I. In just 12 weeks, this life-changing approach has achieved outcomes that years of clinical intervention alone could not.

And this is exactly why we’ve taken this beyond individual practice and into our workforce.

After James Loveday and I completed this training last year,

we made a deliberate decision to skill our team in the Hearing Voices approach.• Staff completed training late last year•

Another group is booked in for training in March

• We are already seeing the impact this is making in day-to-day support

Our goal is simple: to equip our workforce with practical, humane, evidence-informed skills that genuinely change outcomes for people who hear voices.

James and my strategy is straightforward: we complete the training ourselves first. If it’s fit-for-purpose and translates into real-world practice, it’s all systems go. We get our staff trained 🤜🤛Hands down, the most powerful practice skill I’ve ever had the privilege of using 💫