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

Thurstine Basset is a social worker who now runs his own independent training and development consultancy. His current clients include the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and Education not Discrimination at Rethink. He is the Chair of the Mental Health Training Forum, Middlesex University and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Brighton. Together with Theo Stickley, he is joint editor of Teaching Mental Health (Wiley, 2007) and Learning About Mental Health Practice (Wiley, 2008).

Theo Stickley is Associate Professor of Mental Health in the School of Nursing at the University of Nottingham. Previously, he trained and worked in both mental health nursing and counselling. Theo has led on a number of educational research projects in collaboration with people who use mental health services. He uses narrative as a research method, especially amongst people engaging with arts activities. He leads the East Midlands Arts and Health Research Group; he is also a Director of City Arts, Nottingham, and leads the Art in Mind programme of work.