![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f6ac03489cb6fbeff76e65a2aa157c6a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA man who has suffered from hallucinations for nearly two decades said a new therapy being trialled in South Yorkshire had helped him change a “narrative of powerlessness”.<\/p>\n
Thom Brandwood-Spencer, 28, first started seeing false images when he was walking home from school, aged nine, and saw himself hopping between lampposts.<\/p>\n
He said the visions became more “sinister” as he reached his teenage years, causing him to feel “in danger, as if the images and sounds were portents of things to come.”<\/p>\n
Now, researchers at the University of Sheffield say a trial of IMAPS talking therapy, which aims to help psychosis patients understand and replace images with more positive ones, is showing “promising results”.<\/p>\n
Psychosis is an umbrella term for when people lose some sense of reality, such as having delusional beliefs or hallucinations.<\/p>\n
Around three-quarters of sufferers report having intrusive mental images.<\/p>\n
Mr Brandwood-Spencer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a type of psychosis, after he started hearing voices and seeing featureless figures as a teenager.<\/p>\n
But after 12 weeks of talking therapy he learned techniques such as putting the figures into diving suits or armour.<\/p>\n
“I came to see that the threat wasn’t from the figures, but from my own feelings, and grasping that made a significant difference,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It helped me feel like they couldn’t get me anymore.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Chris Taylor said images had a “more powerful impact” than words alone. [University of Sheffield]<\/p>\n
Dr Chris Taylor, clinical psychologist and chief investigator on the trial, said: “We know that imagery has a more powerful impact on emotions and how we feel than just words alone.<\/p>\n
“Imagine you’re somebody who’s suspicious with paranoia and you have a fear that someone’s going to break into your flat and attack you and hurt you.<\/p>\n
“If you get a visual mental image of that as well, it makes you feel more anxious, more worried, worsens your paranoia.”<\/p>\n
He said he hoped a full clinical trial would take place into the cost and clinical effectiveness of the treatment, and lead to it being used widely.<\/p>\n
Mr Brandwood-Spencer said the therapy helped him separate the images from the “menacing feelings of threat” they caused.<\/p>\n
“One of the most difficult aspects was the powerlessness and the idea that what was happening to me was permanent and inescapable,” he added.<\/p>\n
“IMAPS helped me to address this, by changing this narrative of powerlessness.”<\/p>\n
He now works in the substance use and mental health sectors, where he said he was “able to give people what I needed when it all began”.<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North<\/a><\/p>\n More on this storyRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who has suffered from hallucinations for nearly two decades said a new therapy being trialled in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[144739,49,48,94404,37364,84,144736,144740,144737,144738,19970,144735,116877],"class_list":["post-327700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brandwood-spencer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chris-taylor","tag-hallucinations","tag-health","tag-powerlessness","tag-psychosis-patients","tag-south-yorkshire","tag-talking-therapy","tag-therapy","tag-thom-brandwood-spencer","tag-university-of-sheffield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}