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Voices of Experience

Narratives of Mental Health Survivors

Thurstine Basset author Theo Stickley author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:John Wiley & Sons Inc

Published:17th Sep '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Voices of Experience cover

Voices of Experience contains a wide range of stories written by mental health survivors. The narratives illustrate how survivors have developed self-management techniques and strategies for living which, together, offer a guide to anybody struggling with 21st century life.

  • Explores a wide variety of mental distress experiences, underpinned by many different explanations and beliefs
  • Narrative has been central to the recovery approach and this book presents stories of recovery as well as an appraisal of the concept
  • Challenges simplistic explanations of recovery and offers a critical angle to our understanding of what it means to experience mental health problems
  • Offers guidance for mental health workers and professionals within the context of current mental health policies in the UK
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"The book has much to offer therapists who counsel those recovering and their carers, although its primary
target is other mental health professionals and researchers." (Therapy Today, 1 September 2011)

"They would also read of the value of the support provided by others who demonstrate empathy and compassion. I highly recommend this book and am happy to say a copy is now available in UWE's Glenside library." (University of the West of England, 1 September 2011)


"Appealing to both practitioners and patients, the book features stories and poems on surviving/recovering from mental illness, coping strategies, and recovery/discovery (the latter term preferred by some)." (Booknews, 1 February 2011)

"One of the unique strengths of the book is that it straddles the usual divide between "professional" and "survivor" literature. Whilst the contributors are all service users or survivors, many are also workers or academics, and the thoughtful introduction relates the contributors' ideas to current debates... I would recommend this book to all service users, survivors, mental health workers and students." (Open Mind, July/August 2011)

"First-person narrative accounts of illness form a substantial proportion of the literature... (these) narratives form an interesting and well-edited collection." (Journal of Mental Health, December 2011)

ISBN: 9780470683620

Dimensions: 244mm x 170mm x 13mm

Weight: 372g

224 pages