self-injury.net

A visually lyrical, experimental documentary about women who cut themselves, this film explores the gray areas in women's relationships to their bodies in the context of deliberately self-inflicted injury. The women in Between the Lines negotiate the fine line between self-destructive behavior and self-preserving coping mechanisms.

Guidelines for working with people who self-injure. A useful starting-point for reviewing existing practice or for the development of new services. Of relevance to individual workers, teams, managers and to service planners.

In these two professional videos, David Calof, Dusty Miller, Ed.D., and John N. Briere, Ph.D. discuss the causes of self injury with special attention to childhood sexual abuse. Whatever the method of self injury -- burning, cutting, bruising, passive collusion, accidents, eating disorders -- the key factor in successful intervention is to discover the motivations behind these adaptive responses to trauma.

The therapists consider how treatment for self injury may raise significant issues for the therapist, including countertransference; suicidality vs. self injury; differentiating psychosis and MPD; dissociation; timing trauma work, and borderline personality disorder. Also discussed are effective interventions, such as alternative behaviors, contracts, hospitalization, defusing shame, trauma "containers," and guided imagery.

Treatment for self injury may raise a number of significant issues for the therapist, such as countertransference, suicidality vs. self injury, and differentiating between borderline personality disorder, psychosis, and dissociation. Suggested interventions may include defusing shame, suggesting alternative behaviors, and utilizing hospitalization, trauma containers, and guided imagery.