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1. INTRODUCTION = 33 den, McCarthy-Jones, Waddingham, g Ihomas, 2014; Woods, 2013). Ihe role of Marius Romme, the first hearing voices therapist, is also essential as he was able to help legitimize voice hearing as a non-psychiatric symptom (M. A. Romme & Escher, 2000). Qualitative findings have demonstrated interconnection between the relational theory, the HVM and the experience of recovery (Chin, Hayward, & Drinnan, 2009; Holt & Tickle, 2014; Jackson et al., 2011). The results of relationship therapy (Hayward, Berry, McCarthy-Jones, Strauss, & Thomas, 2013) and recovery experiences (de Jager et al., 2015; Holt & Tickle, 2014) could all be explained with the help of the relational theory. Chin and colleagues’ (2009) IPA study explained the relationship between the T and the voices using elements of Birtchnell’s relating theory (Birtchnell, 1993, 1994): the personalisation of voices, the opposition or united relationship between the T and the voices, the proximity between the T and the voices. A grounded theory study (Jackson et al., 2011) revealed three explanatory factors of the positive relationship between the person and the voices: reduction of fear, recognition of positive feelings and the establishment of control. These factors were grounded in different processes: personalization of voices, personal connection to the voices, strong self-sense (the sense of independence), connection to the community and a personal and meaningful narrative about voice hearing in the life story. Consequently, these experiences led to the recoverycentered approaches and the functional concepts of self-help groups. In Hungary, the Semmelweis University Community Psychiatry Centre Awakenings Foundation operates a self-help group for voice hearers. This voice hearing group is self-organized based on the Mérey (2013) self-help books for voice hearers. Since there was no previous Hungarian research that examined voice hearing, and IPA is a suitable research method for research topics that are meaningful experiences, and many previous IPA studies examined the experience of voice hearing (Chin et al., 2009; Holt & Tickle, 2015; Rosen et al., 2015) the aims of the fourth study (Study 4)* included on my book were: (1) to explore the lived experiences of voice hearing (2) to examine how participants make sense of their voice hearing experience (3) to examine what does recovery mean in this context (4) to explore the role of self-help group by utilizing IPA 41 (Rácz, Kaló, Kassai, Kiss, & Pintér, 2017)
