Suicide Prevention

Suicide Prevention in Clondalkin, Online and by Phone

Two client groups are worked with in suicide prevention.
The actively suicidal person and the people who care for them.
In Prevail, I work with both of them.

For the person contemplating suicide, I validate their reasons for being suicidal and try to put a suicide prevention plan in place.
I encourage them to identify the positive factors, such as good friendships, even work, that have given them a reason to live so far.

For the loved ones of suicidal people, I listen to their fears and anger over what their loved one is doing or threatening to do.
It is important to remember that the primary concern is the suicidal person. The main role in supporting the family or friends is to enable them to be there for the person at risk in a helpful manner.

This blog will focus on the person at risk of suicide. Their loved ones may need direct support after the risk has abated.

What Approaches are used in Suicide Prevention?

The first stage of suicide prevention is dealing with the immediate risk, if there is one.
The approach in this section is very direct and focused. All interventions are geared towards enabling the client to maintain safety.

While the therapist may take the lead in the process, it remains collaborative. The client will have to maintain their own safety once the session is finished. That will only be achieved if the client already agrees to it within the session.

In the initial session, the client will have contracted that if a serious risk occurs during a session, the therapist can breach confidentiality.
This means that a primary supportive person can be called to bring the client to a place of safety, A&E if necessary.

Throughout all this time, the counsellor remains with the client. Positive affirmation is used.
The client’s reasons for dying are accepted. Positive supports are explored. Reasons for living are also explored, called protective factors.

This process is similar to the motivational interviewing approach. Motivational interviewing acknowledges the ambivalence that someone like a suicidal person can have towards positive change. Click HERE to learn more about this.

Once the immediate crisis of a threat to life has passed, the therapy takes a more traditional route.
The risk must still be assessed regularly, but it does not have to be as intense.

The therapist will use cognitive behavioural techniques to get to the core beliefs of what the client holds about themselves and how they relate to their environment. These are the reasons for the client's suicidal ideation.
Click HERE to read more about CBT.

The five basic needs of choice therapy are a good launch pad into investigating how well the client is meeting their reasons to live. Click HERE to read more about choice theory.

How can Counselling Help Prevent Suicide?

To put it simply, counselling can save your life.

In my nursing days, I often did shifts of just sitting with people for a night or a day who were actively struggling with wanting to be alive. Yes, part of the purpose of that was pure safety, suicide watch, as some may call it. I choose to believe that there was more to it than that. The simple presence of someone who cared, who listened, who tried to understand, I believe, meant that for those few hours, the patient was more encouraged to live than to die.

While my time with a client now is far shorter, I do believe that it has the potential to be more impactful. As a therapist, I am using the approaches I have learned to actively present reasons for living. The reasons for dying are never ignored, but ways to contain them and even reduce them are worked on.

Specific Aspects of Suicide Prevention

As previously stated, there are two levels of therapeutic work with suicide. The immediate work of stopping a planned suicide and the long-term work of reducing the impulse to die by suicide.

For me, I believe the key for a therapist in working with a suicidal person is not to be afraid of talking about suicide and the reasons why the client wants to die.
While this may seem very intense, raw, it is no more horrendous than working with a client who is experiencing intense grief, or a person with a self-destructive addiction choosing to return to that path when all else seems to have failed.

Working on your suicidal impulses is not easy.
It is challenging, it is scary.

Learning that you really want to live (perhaps for the first time in your life) will ultimately be the most rewarding experience you will ever have.

Prevail Blogs on Suicide

Helping others bereaved by suicide.‍ Suicide bereavement is one of the most complex and emotionally overwhelming forms of grief. Supporting someone through it is deeply meaningful, but also demanding. This blog outlines how you can help someone going through bereavement from suicide.
Struggling with your own bereavement by suicide. This blog is specifically for those who are themselves grieving a suicide. There are suggestions on how to cope with bereavement and how Prevail can help.

Managing a suicidal emergency. If you suspect that a person close to you is at high risk of suicide, this blog can help you to help them. Direct suggestions are given on how to manage a person who is actively suicidal.

How counselling can help with suicidal thoughts. This blog highlights the role counselling can play in working with a client who has suicidal ideation. Assessment of risk is first. Understanding the client’s pain while also finding positives for living are the main components of the work. Finally, implementing strategies to strengthen the positive reasons to live are explored.

Facts about suicide in Ireland. Some research about the reality of how prevalent suicide is in Ireland.

Frequently Asked Questions about Suicide Prevention Counselling

Book with Prevail for Suicide Prevention Counselling

To book a suicide prevention counselling session with James, click here: