​Many people are troubled by persisting experiences of hearing voices, particularly hearing critical or threatening voices. We've worked with hundreds of people with this experience at our specialist voices clinic and we've long been interested in what are the most effective ways to help people. The AMETHYST trial has been funded by the Australian government to conduct a world-leading trial to examine this. It's what's called a randomised control trial, which means that people will be allocated at random to receive one of two therapies so that we can compare them. Both therapies will be delivered by telehealth. That means that people will receive them by video link to either their computer at home or one at a local service. The first therapy will be the standard current best practice therapy that we use routinely at the Voices Clinic. This involves the therapist helping you to better understand your experiences and find the best possible ways of coping with and responding to them when they bother you. The second therapy is called avatar therapy. This is a new therapy that's not yet available outside of research. It's similar to the standard therapy but also uses computer software to enhance the therapy process. The therapist helps the client to develop a visual representation or avatar of the voice they hear and uses this avatar in role plays to help the person practice coping with and responding to voices when they occur. Now, results in research trials have established that avatar therapy is an effective therapy, and when we've compared the results of all the research on therapies for hearing voices, it looks like this could be more effective than our current best practice therapy, and our trial will be directly testing that. Hi, my name is Jess, and I'm one of the therapists on the Amethyst trial. In my experience as a therapist, I've seen how useful talk therapy can be in helping people cope with voices. What's great about this trial is that it gives people access to free, high-quality therapy for distressing voices. We're able to work with people from across Australia with the knowledge that both therapies are effective and likely to help. We also know it's common to have nerves about seeing someone, so it's a big priority for us to make sure that people feel at ease. We take things at your pace and explain each stage of therapy as we go, and everything is done in collaboration with you. I've seen how these therapies can make a big difference in people's lives, so if hearing voices is something you struggle with, this trial could be a really great opportunity. If you choose to take part, you'll first complete an assessment and then you'll receive seven weekly sessions of one of the two therapies. We'll then ask you to complete some assessments afterwards so that we can compare the therapies across participants. If you're potentially interested in taking part, please fill out your details on the sign-up page, and we'll get in touch with you to give you all the details that you may need and help you to make a decision about taking part. Thank you.