Self-Harm

Self-Harm

If you're hurting yourself as a way of coping, you are not alone, and you are not "attention-seeking," broken, or beyond help. Self-harm is usually a way of managing feelings that feel unbearable, unspeakable, or completely out of control—it makes sense as a survival strategy, even as we work together to find other ways forward.

Why People Self-Harm

Self-harm can serve many different purposes, and it's rarely about wanting to end your life. It might be a way to:

• Release unbearable emotional pain or tension
• Feel something, when numbness or dissociation feels worse
• Regain a sense of control when everything else feels chaotic
• Punish yourself for feelings of shame or self-blame
• Communicate distress that feels impossible to put into words

How We Work Together

I won't ask you to simply stop, or treat self-harm as the problem to be fixed in isolation. Instead, we work together, at your pace, to:

• Understand what the self-harm is doing for you, and what it's protecting you from
• Build a wider range of ways to cope with intense feelings
• Work through the shame that often surrounds self-harm
• Address what sits underneath—whether that's trauma, anxiety, low self-worth, or something else

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