Suicide

When Teens Talk About Suicide

A DBT Approach for Critical Moments

The rise in teen suicidality is frightening, but hospitalization isn’t the only—or even the best—option for treatment. Read more

The Adultification of Black Youth

When Trauma Goes Unseen

At best, self-harm and suicide among Black children are misunderstood. At worst, they’re willfully ignored. Read more

Changing How We Think about Youth Suicide

An Interview with David Jobes

In this Networker Live event, senior editor Chris Lyford speaks with suicidologist Dr. David Jobes about the impact of ideation. Read more

The Therapy Beat September 14, 2022

The Ideation Factor

Changing How We Think about Youth Suicide

Suicidal ideation among teens is overlooked, understudied, and sometimes even willfully ignored. Read more

Shattered by Suicide

Helping Families in the Aftermath

Suicide isn't simply the tragedy of someone taking their own life: it's also the long, excruciating nightmare of being left behind. Read more

Open Book January 7, 2022

Suicide as a State of Being

One Man's Ongoing Struggle

A new memoir from celebrated writer Donald Antrim reflects on the nature of suicide. Read more

When Therapists Struggle with Suicidality

Releasing Ourselves from Stigma and Shame

Many therapists wrestle with the same problems we help our clients tame. But the myth that therapists are masters of their own mental health makes it... Read more

The Myth of Infallibility

A Therapist Comes to Terms with a Client’s Suicide

When it comes to coping with suicide deaths, we therapists need to let go of our superhero expectations. Read more

On the Death of My Friend

A Reflection on Bipolar Disorder and Suicide

Helping our community understand the suicide of one of modern psychotherapy’s most cherished public figures. Read more

The Black Youth Suicide Epidemic

Confronting Misconceptions and Inequities

Self-harm is not a culturally specific phenomenon, but it’s often misunderstood and overlooked in Black children by a society that forces them to grow up... Read more

Victoria Kress, John Sommers-Flanagan, and Zachary Taylor

When working with a young client who's struggling with self-harm, how should clinicians navigate the practical, emotional, and ethical difficulties surrounding... Read more

Point of View May 1, 2020

Listening to Suicidal Clients

How to Get Beyond our Fears

A suicidologist opens up about her personal struggles and what actually helps when working with suicidal clients. Read more

Case Study December 27, 2019

The Therapist as Traffic Cop

Learning the Hard Way with a Volatile Couple

Being a good traffic cop can mean the difference between success or failure as a couples therapist.* Commentary by Peter Fraenkel Read more

Clinician's Quandary October 1, 2019
Psychotherapy Networker

A new clinician is working with a client who’s expressed some suicidality at times. She's worried about him and thinks it might be a good idea to have him... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2019

Suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge

BONUS Video: Watch Malcolm's full keynote from Symposium 2019

In his many bestselling books, author Malcolm Gladwell has achieved renown for upending conventional thinking about the forces that shape people’s lives. His... Read more

Case Study May 6, 2019

In the Aftermath of Suicide

The Long Journey to Healing

In the wake of a loved one’s suicide, therapists must have the patience to sit with clients as the slow and painful process of healing unfolds. CASE... Read more

When Depression Runs in the Family

Being Haunted Isn't the Same as Being Cursed

My family is haunted by depression. My mother can trace it back in her family at least six generations. When it hits, it hits hard. My own battle with... Read more

Point of View September 5, 2018

The Suicide Epidemic

What Can We Do?

Author and therapist Kay Redfield Jamison explores what we can do to address the suicide epidemic. Read more

A Journey Through Fire

Surviving When Your Self Is in Ashes

At its worst, depression extinguishes your inner pilot light, depriving you of the substrate that makes you feel real. Sufferers complain of living in a fog... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 23, 2018

VIDEO: The Hearing

A Therapist Shares Her Most Transformative Session

In our own small way, the Networker has tried to revive the ancient, tribal practice of storytelling. At our third annual Symposium storytelling event, Kirsten... Read more

Athletes Get Real About Mental Health

What’s Behind the Recent Slew of Confessional Essays?

A growing list of professional athletes have begun going public with personal mental health concerns all on their own. They contain unflinchingly honest... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 9, 2018

The Hearing

From an Evening of Storytelling 2018

A therapist tries to ride to the rescue of an immigrant client in a desperate situation. Read more

Coping and Learning After a Client's Suicide

A Therapist Reflects on What He Might Have Done Differently

I've been in full-time private practice for almost 30 years. In that time, three patients in my practice killed themselves. Each suicide has left me... Read more

The Therapy Beat July 12, 2017

Is teen suicide contagious? Clinicians weigh in on the controversy around 13 Reasons Why. Read more

As a therapist, how do you work with conservative parents struggling to parent their trans child? Psychotherapist Jean Malpas shares three keys to acceptance. Read more

The Transgender Journey

What Role Should Therapists Play?

Parents typically view their children in the largely gendered terms society lays out for them. Rearranging that internal mind map requires tremendous effort... Read more

What the Financial Crisis Reveals About Our Psyche and Values

Confronting our Definitions of Wealth in the Therapy Room

The current economic crisis may be no more than a rather large bump in the golden road of endlessly self-renewing American prosperity. Still, it's hard not to... Read more

Uncovering the Source of Suicidality with Brain Science

Are Serotonin Levels the Key Factor in Suicidal Depression?

I'm at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in northern Manhattan. My guide, Victoria, has been studying the brains of people who committed suicide, and... Read more

Hypnotic Language in the Consulting Room

Bill O'Hanlon on the Power of Giving Permission in Therapy

As therapists, we must recognize the complexity and ambivalence at the core of human experience. People run into problems when their lives are dictated by... Read more

Do therapists have a responsibility to educate people about society's role in generating unprecedented levels of depression? Read more