An investigation of mindfulness as a therapeutic tool for the distress and disruption associated with hearing persistent voices

Up to 50% of individuals with psychosis experience persisting psychotic symptoms, such as auditory hallucinations (‘voices’) and delusions, despite the use of antipsychotic medication. Treatment of these symptoms has been a major target in the development of psychological therapies. The overarching goal of this thesis was to empirically test the use of mindfulness as a therapeutic tool for managing the distress and disruption associated with psychotic symptoms. This thesis involved the development of an individual-format, manualised, mindfulness-based intervention for persistent voices. Findings suggest further large-scale feasibility trials are warranted to ascertain the efficacy for focused mindfulness interventions for distressing voices.