The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

By: Nicholas J. Westers Psy.D. ABPP
  • Summary

  • Why do people self-injure? And what is the best way to respond when someone tells us they self-injure? Dr. Nicholas Westers, a clinical psychologist at Children's Health and Associate Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, collaborates with the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury (ISSS) to interview the leading experts in the field of self-injury and self-harm as well as individuals with lived experience of self-injury and parents and family members of those who have self-injured. This podcast is meant to be a resource for parents, professionals, and people with lived experience.
    2021 The Psychology of Self-Injury
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Episodes
  • Emotion Regulation Individual Therapy for Adolescents (ERITA) Who Self-Harm, with Dr. Johan Bjureberg
    Aug 30 2024
    Emotion Regulation Individual Therapy for Adolescents (ERITA) and its internet-delivered version (IERITA) is just one of a couple of treatments developed specifically to address nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents. In this episode, Dr. Johan Bjureberg from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden walks us through in detail each of the 11 sessions of IERITA and IERITA's 6 parallel sessions for parents.Learn more about Dr. Bjureberg's work here, and follow the Bjureberg Research Lab and their projects and publications at https://bjureberglab.se/. Below are links to his research on ERITA/IERITA referenced in this episode:Bjureberg, J., Ojala, O., Hesser, H., Häbel, H., Sahlin, H., Gratz, K. L., Tull, M. T., Knutsson, E. C., Hedman-Lagerlöf, E., Ljótsson, B., & Hellner, C. (2023). Effect of internet-delivered Emotion Regulation Individual Therapy for Adolescents with Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open, 6(7), e2322069.Bjureberg, J., Sahlin, H., Hedman-Lagerlof, E., Gratz, K. L., Tull, M. T., Jokinen, J., Hellner, C., & Ljotsson, B. (2018). Extending research on emotion regulation individual therapy for adolescents (ERITA) with nonsuicidal self-injury disorder: Open pilot trial and mediation analysis of a novel online version. BMC Psychiatry, 18, 326.Bjureberg, J., Sahlin, H., Hellner, C., Hedman-Lagerlof, E., Gratz, K. L., Bjarehed, J., Jokinen, J., Tull, M. T., & Ljotsson, B. (2017). Emotion regulation individual therapy for adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury disorder: A feasibility study. BMC Psychiatry, 17, 411.Want to have a bigger role on the podcast?:Should you or someone you know be interviewed on the podcast? We want to know! Please fill out this Google doc form, and we will be in touch with more details if it’s a good fit.Want to hear your question and have it answered on the podcast? Please send an audio clip of your question (60 seconds or less) to @DocWesters on Instagram or Twitter/X, or email us at thepsychologyofselfinjury@gmail.comWant to be involved in research? Send us a message at thepsychologyofselfinjury@gmail.com and we will see if we can match you to an active study.Want to interact with us through comments and polls? You can on Spotify!Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter/X (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter/X (@ITripleS).The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated as one of the "10 Best Self Harm Podcasts" and "20 Best Clinical Psychology Podcasts" by Feedspot and one of the Top 100 Psychology Podcasts by Goodpods. It has also been featured in Audible's "Best Mental Health Podcasts to Defy Stigma and Begin to Heal." Goodpods Top 100 Parents Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast Goodpods Top 100 Research Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Tips for Supporting Those Who Self-Harm, with Dr. Nicholas Westers
    Jul 26 2024
    In this episode, host and producer of The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast, Dr. Nicholas Westers, shares his own thoughts about what we should consider when supporting friends, families, clients, and patients who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). This marks the first solo episode of the podcast, and Dr. Westers offers ways for listeners to have a bigger role on the podcast, including:Should you or someone you know be interviewed on the podcast? We want to know! Please fill out this Google doc form, and we will be in touch with more details if it’s a good fit.Want to hear your question and have it answered on the podcast? Please send an audio clip of your question (60 seconds or less) to @DocWesters on Instagram or Twitter/X, or email us at thepsychologyofselfinjury@gmail.comWant to be involved in research? Send us a message at thepsychologyofselfinjury@gmail.com and we will see if we can match you to an active study.Want to interact with us through comments and polls? You can on Spotify!Below are a couple papers related to this episode with Dr. Westers:Westers, N. J., Rehfuss, M., Olson, L., & Biron, D. (2012). The role of forgiveness in adolescents who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 200(6), 535-541.Westers, N. J., & Tinsley, B. (2023). Nonsuicidal self-injury risk assessment, intervention, and guidance for first responders and medical settings. In E. E. Lloyd-Richardson, I. Baetens, & J. Whitlock (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of nonsuicidal self-injury (pp. 873–893). Oxford University Press.Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter/X (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter/X (@ITripleS).The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated as one of the "10 Best Self Harm Podcasts" and "20 Best Clinical Psychology Podcasts" by Feedspot and one of the Top 100 Psychology Podcasts by Goodpods. It has also been featured in Audible's "Best Mental Health Podcasts to Defy Stigma and Begin to Heal." Goodpods Top 100 Parents Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast Goodpods Top 100 Research Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast
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    41 mins
  • Social Media, Meta, & Self-Injury, with Lotte Rubæk
    Jun 28 2024
    In this episode, Lotte Rubæk, MSc, who leads the Self-Injury Team in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Capital Region of Denmark, talks about why interaction on image-based social media platforms like Instagram can be particularly appealing to young people who self-harm. She discusses the dynamics that can arise between users in the more closed social media networks, and she explains why she so publicly resigned from Meta's global expert panel on self-harm after serving on it for 3.5 years.Connect with Lotte on LinkedIn here, and read The Guardian's article about her decision to resign from Meta here. Listen to her podcast, Selvskadens Psykologi, which means The Psychology of Self-Injury in Danish, here. Read about the U.S. Surgeon General's May 2023 advisory about the effects social media use has on youth mental health here, and read about his June 2024 call on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people’s lives here. Below are Lotte's two book chapters in the new Oxford Handbook of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and a few additional papers related to social media and self-injury:Rubæk, L., & Møhl, B. (2023). Direct and indirect self-injury. In E. E. Lloyd-Richardson, I. Baetens, & J. Whitlock (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of nonsuicidal self-injury (pp. 41-71). Oxford University Press.Møhl, B., & Rubæk, L. (2023). Understanding the link between direct and indirect self-injurious behavior. In E. E. Lloyd-Richardson, I. Baetens, & J. Whitlock (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of nonsuicidal self-injury (pp. 680-701). Oxford University Press.Westers, N. J., Lewis, S. P., Whitlock, J., Schatten, H. T., Ammerman, B., Andover, M. S., & Lloyd-Richardson, E. E.(2021). Media guidelines for the responsible reporting and depicting of non-suicidal self-injury. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 219(2), 415-418.Zhu, L., Westers, N. J.,Horton, S. E., King, J. D., Diederich, A., Stewart, S. M., & Kennard, B. D. (2016). Frequency of exposure to and engagement in nonsuicidal self-injury among inpatient adolescents. Archives of Suicide Research, 20(4), 580-590.Bridge, J. A., Greenhouse, J. B., Ruch, D., Stevens, J., Ackerman, J., Sheftall, A. H., Horowitz, L. M., Kelleher, K. J., & Campo, J. V. (2020). Association between the release of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and suicide rates in the United States: An interrupted time series analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(2), 236-243.Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter/X (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter/X (@ITripleS).The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated as one of the "10 Best Self Harm Podcasts" and "20 Best Clinical Psychology Podcasts" by Feedspot and one of the Top 100 Psychology Podcasts by Goodpods. It has also been featured in Audible's "Best Mental Health Podcasts to Defy Stigma and Begin to Heal."If you or someone you know should be interviewed on the podcast, we want to know! Please fill out this form, and we will be in touch with more details if it’s a good fit. Goodpods Top 100 Parents Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast Goodpods Top 100 Research Podcasts Listen now to The Psychology of Self-Injury: ExploringSelf-Harm & Mental Health podcast
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    1 hr and 3 mins

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Amazing

I am a professional and work in residential treatment. I was new to handling incidents on self harm from our clients & I wanted to seek understanding on this topic. This podcast is amazing & I have learned a lot to which I take with me into my practice.

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