Suicide and Self-Harm

Suicide and Self-Harm are things that can impact individuals and families of all ages, cultures and experiences. It can feel like an overwhelming thing to deal with but our team at The Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre is here to support you through it, whether you’re experiencing thoughts or urges, supporting a loved one, or coping after a suicide-related loss.


What is Suicidal Ideation?

Suicidal Ideation is when someone has thoughts of suicide. For some people this can come with urges or actions, and for others their ideation will just remain thoughts (sometimes intrusive thoughts) that either come up when triggered or that stay on the mind continusouly - sometimes in the background and sometimes at the forefront. Government statistics show that every year in Canada 4,500 people in Canada die by suicide, every day more than 200 people act on their thoughts of suicide, and for every death by suicide 7 to 10 survivors are significantly affected by the loss.

People often experience suicidal ideation because they’re dealing with something they don’t know how else to deal with. They feel pushed into a corner and in that moment feel that suicide is their only option, that there is no other way out. This can be due to depression or other mental health challenges, or because of abuse, trauma, bullying, low self-esteem, grief or any other intense experience or emotion that they don’t know what to do about. And that’s where therapy comes in to help you work to deal with those issues, to find another way to cope and process that doesn’t involve thoughts or plans around ending your life.

 
 

What is Self-Harm?

Self-Harm is the act of deliberately inflicting harm or pain upon yourself. This can be done for a number of reasons, including to self-punish, to release emotions, or to try to clear the mind. Self-harm doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is also experiencing thoughts of suicide - for some people they can cross over and the self-harm can be a component of suicidal ideation, but for others self-harm is purely a reaction to what they’re feeling in the moment, with no intentions of engaging in suicidal actions.

Individuals of all ages, backgounds and experiences engage in self-harm, though statistics show that it occurs most often with teenagers and a recent study indicated that rates of self-harm ranged from 6.4% to 14.8% for boys and 17.7% to 30.8% for girls.

A lot of people who self-harm think that it will help resolve their issues, but in fact a lot find that the opposite happens - it helps in that immediate moment, and then when it passes everything comes back and often they are left feeling even worse. This is where therapy comes in. To really address and resolve whatever is going on that’s leading to the thoughts of self-harm, we have to work through them. That’s where we can help.

Types of Therapy and Support

Therapy for suicide and self-harm usually starts with figuring out what the goal of those actions are - What is the function of self-harm? What are the thoughts of suicide helping the person get away from? What is the goal of suicide? Once we figure those out, we can get to the root of the issue and work to address and process it. Each clinician will have their own approach to dealing with suicide and self-harm, but some of the approaches you might experience at The Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre include:

Working with a Clinician

Our office has a number of professionals who work with suicide and self-harm, who you can view below. Once your clinician has met with you and assessed your situation they’ll help create a treatment plan to address your thoughts or urges related to suicide and/or self-harm. Therapy is most effective when there is a strong connection between the therapist and client, and because of that we encourage you to meet for consults with as many clinicians as you need to ensure the best fit.