Treating Self-Injury

Published USA, 2012
Barent Walsh outlines specific procedures for assessing persons at risk, ranging from those who do not have psychiatric diagnoses to those with eating or mood disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, personality disorders, or psychoses. The practitioner is taken step-by-step through selecting and implementing interventions that match the problems and strengths of the individual client. Chapters offer clear, how-to-do-it guidelines for contingency management, replacement skills training, cognitive therapy, body image work, and exposure treatment of trauma. Psychopharmacological and family-based approaches are also reviewed in depth. Throughout, case examples illuminate the thoughts and feelings of self-injurers and show what the treatment strategies look like in action. Special topics encompass treating major self-injury, managing self-injury in school settings, engaging clients, and dealing with the emotional impact of this kind of work on the therapist.

CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS
A Biopsychosocial Model for Self-Injury
Initial Therapeutic Responses
Cognitive-Behavioural Assessment
Contingency Management
Replacement Skills Training
Exposure Treatment and Resolution of Trauma
Managing the Reactions of Therapists and Other Caregivers to Self-Injury
A Protocol for Managing Self-Injury in School Settings

Barent Walsh has worked with self-injuring persons since the late 1970s. He is the longtime Executive Director of The Bridge of Central Massachusetts, USA.
Hardback. 418 pages
NEW EDITION