FirstSigns

So many big charities are asking for £2 or £3 a month now, and what with the recession and everything…

The seventh and final part of our series from the article I wrote for HCPJ last year.
Self-injury can be seen as a compulsion, but it is not something that just ‘happens to’ a person or is out of their control.
Self-injury is a choice; the person is choosing to cope as best they can. Although self-injury [...]

Part six of my article published in the Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal last year.
People who work with clients who self-injure need to be prepared to give up their preconceptions and accept that self-injury has a purpose, a function and that it is a ‘valid’ way to cope for those who feel they have no [...]

As we approach the end of another Self-Injury Awareness Day (in the UK anyway, some of our global friends are still very much in day-time!) I wonder what has changed, and what has it meant for you? I know that for LifeSIGNS and for Wedge and I it’s the culmination of many hours hard work, [...]

Today is SIAD, or Self-Injury Awareness Day. All over the globe people and groups will be raising awareness about this difficult subject and at FirstSigns / LifeSIGNS we have been busy preparing for several weeks.
Wedge has worked hard on our SIAD page and spent a great deal of time giving quotes to the media (it’s [...]

The fifth part of our series, first published as a single article in the Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal last year.
Because self-injury is experienced as a coping mechanism, it is a mistake for carers or professionals to push for a cessation of the self-harming behaviour.
Those who are trapped in the cycle of self-injury or self-harm [...]

As promised, here’s the fourth part of the article I wrote for the Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal:
At first glance it may be hard to see how hurting oneself can make one feel better.
Is there a ‘high’? Some kind of ‘rush’? On the surface, it is hard to see what is good about [...]

Self-Injury Awareness Day approaches and we’ve got free posters and factsheets for you to email around and print off.

Today we bring you the third part of my article published in the Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal last year.
The media tend to focus on young girls who cut themselves. Women’s magazines and teen magazines for girls reflect their audiences, so naturally stay focused on girls who self-injure.
By contrast, men’s magazines hardly touch the subject [...]

The second part of my article first published in the Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal (HCPJ) published by the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP), in January 2009:
At FirstSigns (LifeSIGNS) we define self-injury as a coping mechanism – something a person learns to rely on to help them deal with intolerable distress.
We do not [...]