Category Archives: Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Clinical Interviewing, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theory and Practice, Personal Reflections, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Coping with Suicide Deaths

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A recent smoky sunrise on the Stillwater River

As most of you know, I recently published an article in Psychotherapy Networker on my long-term experience of coping with the death of a client by suicide. In response to the article, I’ve gotten many supportive responses, some of which included additional published resources on coping with client death by suicide.

This blog post has two parts. First, I’m promoting the Networker article again to get it more widely shared as one resource for counselors and psychotherapists who have lost a client. Below, is an excerpt from the article. . . followed by a link. Please share with friends and colleagues as you see fit.

Second, at the end of this post I’m including additional resource articles that several people have shared with me over the past two weeks.

Here’s the excerpt . . .

The Prevention Myth

I’d worked with Ethan for about 20 sessions. Stocky, socially awkward, and intellectually gifted, he often avoided telling me much of anything, but his unhappiness was palpable. He didn’t fit in with classmates or connect with teachers. Ethan felt like a misfit at home and out of place at school. Nearly always, he experienced the grinding pain of being different, regardless of the context.

But aren’t we all different? Don’t we all suffer grinding pain, at least sometimes? What pushed Ethan to suicide when so many others, with equally difficult life situations and psychodynamics, stay alive?

One truth that reassures me now, and I wish I’d grasped back in the 1990s, is that empirical research generally affirms that suicide is unpredictable. This reality runs counter to much of what we hear from well-meaning suicide-prevention professionals. You may have heard the conventional wisdom: “Suicide is 100 percent preventable!” and, “If you educate yourself about risk factors and warning signs, and ask people directly about suicidal thoughts or plans, you can save lives.”

Although there’s some empirical evidence for these statements (i.e., sometimes suicide is preventable, and sometimes you can save lives), the general idea that knowledge of suicide risk, protective factors, and warning signs will equip clinicians to predict individual suicides is an illusion. In a 2017 large-scale meta-analysis covering 50 years of research on risk and protective factors, Joseph Franklin of Vanderbilt University and nine other prominent suicide researchers conducted an exhaustive analysis of 3,428 empirical studies. They found very little support for risk or protective factors as suicide predictors. In one of many of their sobering conclusions, they wrote, “It may be tempting to interpret some of the small differences across outcomes as having meaningful implications, . . . however, we note here that all risk factors were weak in magnitude and that any differences across outcomes . . . are not likely to be meaningful.”

Franklin and his collaborators were articulating the unpleasant conclusion that we have no good science-based tools for accurately predicting suicide. I hope this changes, but at the moment, I find comfort in the scientific validation of my personal experience. For years, I’ve held onto another suicide quotation for solace. In 1995, renowned suicidologist Robert Litman wrote, “When I am asked why one depressed and suicidal patient dies by suicide while nine other equally depressed and equally suicidal patients do not, I answer, ‘I don’t know.’”

Here’s the link to the full article: https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/2565/the-myth-of-infallibility

Here are the additional resources people have shared with me:

Ellis, T. E., & Patel, A. B. (2012). Client suicide: what now?. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19(2), 277-287.

Jorgensen, M. F., Bender, S., & McCutchen, A. (2021) “I’m haunted by it:” Experiences of licensed counselors who had a client die by suicide. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy. DOI: 10.1080/2326716X.2021.1916790

Knox, S., Burkard, A. W., Jackson, J. A., Schaack, A. M., & Hess, S. A. (2006). Therapists-in-training who experience a client suicide: Implications for supervision. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 37(5), 547-557.

Ting, L., Jacobson, J. M., & Sanders, S. (2008). Available supports and coping behaviors of mental health social workers following fatal and nonfatal client suicidal behavior. Social work, 53(3), 211-221.

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Clinical Interviewing, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Montana Conference on Suicide Prevention — My Powerpoints

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Good morning. I’m listening to Dr. David Jobes talk about innovations in approaching suicide assessment and treatment. I’m struck by the breadth and depth of his knowledge . . . and also discouraged by him acknowledging how difficult it is to change people’s mindsets regarding suicidality and its treatment. At this point we ALREADY have many effective psychosocial treatments, but disappointingly, the media and public knowledge still leans toward profiling hospitalization and the potential of medication (both of which show very mixed results).

I’ll stop with my rant here and post my ppts. Thanks for reading . . . and be sure to get the word out on innovations in suicide assessment and treatment (aka psychosocial treatments).

mcosp-july-30-2021Download
Clinical Interviewing, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Tomorrow – Another Suicide Prevention Conference with Free CEUs

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The second of two consecutive suicide prevention conferences with free CEUs is tomorrow! Just in case you didn’t know, this conference, the Montana Conference on Suicide Prevention, has two full hours of David Jobes–the creator of CAMS–in the afternoon. How often do you get to listen to Dr. Jobes for two hours, for free, and get CEUs? Not often, I suspect.

Here’s the conference link. Go to the bottom to find the registration button: https://www.montanacosp.org/

In related news, I just got an email from the Association for Humanistic Counseling about an upcoming all-day conference on Strengths-Based Suicide Assessment and Treatment (with me presenting!). The date is: 9.24.21. This one has a small fee for CEUs . . . but it’s cheaper if you become an AHC member. Here’s the registration link for that one: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eibjc7x5afb40bd4&oseq=&c=&ch=

Have a great evening and I hope to “see” you tomorrow at the Montana conference.

Clinical Interviewing, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Mental Health Academy Suicide Summit PowerPoint Slides

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Good morning! The 2021 MHA Suicide Summit has started (see below) and I’ll be up in less than an hour.

Sometimes I think the hardest part about doing workshops is writing the workshop blurb. My problem-and maybe it’s just my problem—is that the process of writing workshop blurbs nearly always impairs my judgment. I start out writing like a sensible and rational person, but eventually I decompensate into displaying delusions of grandeur. For the Mental Health Academy Suicide Summit, I completely lost touch with reality and claimed that I would,

  1. Describe strengths-based principles for suicide assessment and treatment
  2. Be able to implement three strengths-based assessment tools (and recognize the limits of risk and protective factor assessment)
  3. Identify suicide drivers (and goals) linked to seven common life dimensions
  4. Describe at least one wellness and mood management positive psychology strategy for patients and practitioners.

Of course, all of this is great, but, here’s the catch. I’m only presenting for 45 minutes!

If anyone out there can help me become more realistic, I would appreciate the input.

In the meantime, here are the ppts for the presentation today.

mha-on-sbsa-july-2021Download

John

Clinical Interviewing, Personal Reflections, Suicide Assessment and Intervention, Writing

This Month’s Psychotherapy Networker Magazine and the Myth of Infallibility

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Hi All,

In this post I’m sharing a link to an article I just had published in Psychotherapy Networker. Although I had hoped it would be the Networker’s “lead article,” instead, they put Shankar Vedantam first? And then a bunch of other people, like David Burns and Martha Manning? Seriously? All jokes aside, the truth is, I’m humbled to be included.

The article—titled “The Myth of Infallibility”—is about my immediate and ongoing emotional reactions to the loss of a client to suicide. I hope the article provides useful information and emotional support for counselors and psychotherapists who have experienced—or will experience—a similar loss.

You can use the following link to bypass the paywall and read the article for free.

https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/2565/the-myth-of-infallibility/f576ab48-e662-46f0-b122-06ab19d35e28/OIM

Thanks for reading this. Please share the link if you feel so moved. One of my counseling colleagues shared it with all her students, which seemed great to me, mostly because IMHO, we don’t talk much or get formal training on how to cope when or if we have a client who dies by suicide.

Today, I’m especially grateful for all the people in my life who have supported me in one way or another, over so many years.

Thank you and have a great week.

John S-F

Clinical Interviewing, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Upcoming Suicide Prevention Events with FREE CEUs

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For those of you interested in gathering FREE professional continuing education hours AND because I’m terrible at updating my blog upcoming events calendar, here’s a quick preview of two talks I’m giving later this month.

On Saturday, July 24, I’ll be doing an hour-long live, online presentation and Q & A for the Mental Health Academy’s 2021 Suicide Prevention Summit. The cool thing (among many cool things) about this summit is that it’s completely free. . . and you can get up to 10 CEUs. You can tune in live, or register and then watch recorded versions of the presentations (that’s what I did last year and getting my 10 CEUs was smooth as butter). You can learn more about the event and how to register here:  https://www.mentalhealthacademy.net/suicideprevention/aas

On Friday, July 30, I’m providing a short (30 minute) presentation on the Montana Happiness Project and strengths-based approaches, and then participating on a panel for the 9th Annual Montana Conference on Suicide Prevention. As with the Mental Health Academy Summit, this event is free, although you must register in advance. For information on speakers, registration, and the conference schedule, click on this link: https://www.montanacosp.org/

Let me know if you have questions and I hope you’re staying as safe and as cool as you can . . .

Clinical Interviewing, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theory and Practice, Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Seven Dimensions of Suicide Assessment and Treatment

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Here’s a glimpse of what the garden looks like this morning.

In most of life, most of the time, there’s not much completely new or original. People tend to gather inspiration from others and build on or rediscover old ideas. This my way of acknowledging that, although I wish I always had a boatload of original ideas to share in the blog, more often than not, I’m embracing the green new deal and . . . re-using, recycling, and repurposing old ideas.

The following Table describes the seven dimension model that Rita and I use to aid clinicians in conducting assessments and interventions with clients or patients who are suicidal. These seven dimensions aren’t original, but the idea that suicide drivers (and risk/protective factors) can emerge and influence people from any or all of these dimensions is helpful in a more or less original way. Check out the Table to see if it’s useful for you.

Dimension: In this column, we define the dimensionsEvidence-Based Suicide Drivers: In this column, we identify risk factors or suicide drivers that can push or pull individuals toward suicidality. The key to this model is to identify and treat the main sources of distress (aka psychache). In the next columns (not included here), you would find wellness goals and specific interventions.
Emotional: all human emotions.Excruciating emotional distress

Specific disturbing emotions (guilt, shame, anger, sadness)

Emotional dysregulation
Cognitive: All forms of human thought, including imagery.Hopelessness

Problem-solving impairments

Maladaptive thoughts

Negative core beliefs
Interpersonal: All human relationships.Social disconnection and perceived burdensomeness

Interpersonal loss and grief

Social skill deficits

Repeating dysfunctional relationship patterns
Physical: All human biogenetics and physiology.Biogenetic predispositions and physical illness

Sedentary lifestyle; poor nutrition

Agitation, arousal, anxiety

Trauma, nightmares, insomnia
Spiritual-Cultural: All religious, spiritual, cultural values that provide meaning and purpose.Religious or spiritual disconnection

Cultural disconnection or dislocation

Meaninglessness
Behavioral: All human action and activity.Using substances or self-harm for desensitization

Suicide planning, intent, and preparation

Impulsivity
Contextual: All factors outside of the individual that influence human behavior.No connection to place or nature

Chronic exposure to unhealthy environmental conditions

Socioeconomic oppression or resource scarcity (e.g., poverty)

If you’re interested in learning more, our suicide book is available through the American Counseling Association https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail.aspx?id=78174 or through the usual booksellers.

Have a great weekend.

JSF

Clinical Interviewing, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theory and Practice, Suicide Assessment and Intervention, Writing

Strategies for Dealing with Insomnia and Nightmares, Part II

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This is part II of a two-part blog. For part I, see Sunday’s post: https://johnsommersflanagan.com/2021/05/23/strategies-for-dealing-with-insomnia-and-nightmares-part-i/

Asking About Trauma

You may have a form to screen clients for a trauma history. However, more often than not, you’ll need to ask directly about trauma, just like you need to ask directly about suicidality. In many cases, as discussed in Chapter 3, it may be beneficial to wait and ask about trauma until the second or third session, or until there’s a logical opportunity. Although insomnia and nightmares don’t always signal trauma, when they co-exist, they provide an avenue to ask about trauma.

Counselor: Miguel, I’d like to ask a personal question. Would that be okay?

Miguel: Okay.

Counselor: Almost always, when people have nightmares about guns and death, it means they’ve been through some bad, traumatic experiences. When you’ve been through something bad or terrible, nightmares get stuck in your head and get on a sort of repeating cycle. Is that true for you?

Miguel: Yeah. I went through some bad shit back in Denver.

Counselor: I’m guessing that bad shit is stuck in your brain and one ways it comes out is through nightmares.

Miguel: Yeah. Probably.

Even when clients know their trauma experiences are causing their nightmares, they can still be reluctant to talk about the details. Physical and emotional discomfort associated with trauma is something clients often want to avoid. To reassure clients, you can tell them about specific evidence-based approaches—approaches that don’t require detailed recounting of trauma or nightmare experiences. Two examples include eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR; Shapiro, 2001) and imagery rehearsal therapy (Krakow & Zadra, 2010). 

Miguel: If I talk about the nightmares, they get more real. I have enough trouble keeping them out of my head now.

Counselor: That’s a good point. But right now your dreams are so bad that you’re barely sleeping. It’s worth trying to work through them. How about this? I’ve got a simple protocol for working with nightmares. You don’t even have to talk about the details of your nightmares. I think we should try it and watch to see if your dreams get better, worse, or stay the same? What do you think?

Miguel: I guess maybe my nightmares can’t get much worse.

Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments

In Miguel’s case, the first step was to get him to talk about his insomnia, nightmares, and trauma. Without details about his experiences, there was no chance to dig in and start treatment. The scenario with Miguel illustrates one method for getting clients to open up about trauma. Other clinical situations may be different. We’ve had Native American clients who were having dreams (or not having dreams, but wishing for them), and we needed to begin counseling by seeking better understanding of the role and meaning of dreams in their particular tribal culture.

 Counselors who work with clients who are suicidal should obtain training for treating insomnia, nightmares, and trauma. Depending on your clients’ age, symptoms, culture, the treatment setting, and your preference, several different evidence-based treatments may be effective for treating trauma. The following bulleted list includes treatments recommended by the American Psychological Association (2017) or the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline Working Group (2017), or both (Watkins et al., 2018).

  • Cognitive Processing Therapy (Resick et al., 2017).
  • Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (Shapiro, 2001)
  • Narrative Exposure Therapy (Schauer et al., 2011)
  • Prolonged Exposure (Foa et al., 2007).
  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (Cohen et al., 2012).

Although the preceding list includes the scientifically supported approaches to treating trauma, you may prefer other approaches, many of which are suitable for treating trauma (e.g., body-centered therapies, narrative exposure therapy for children [KID-NET], etc.).

Specific treatments for insomnia and nightmares are also essential for reducing arousal/agitation. Evidence-based treatments for insomnia and nightmares include:

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I; Cunningham & Shapiro, 2018).
  • Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT; Krakow & Zadra, 2010).

Targeting trauma symptoms in general, and physical symptoms in particular (e.g., arousal, insomnia, nightmares) can be crucial to your treatment plan. Addressing physical symptoms in your treatment instills hope and provides near-term symptom relief.

[Check out the whole book for more info: https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail.aspx?id=78174%5D

Clinical Interviewing, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theory and Practice, Suicide Assessment and Intervention, Writing

Strategies for Dealing with Insomnia and Nightmares, Part I

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What follows is an excerpt from, Suicide Assessment and Treatment Planning: A Strengths-Based Approach (American Counseling Association, 2021). We address insomnia and nightmares in Chapter 7 (the Physical Dimension). This is just a glimpse into the cool content of this book.

Insomnia and nightmares directly contribute to client distress in general and suicidal distress in particular. In this section, we use a case example to illustrate how counselors can begin with a less personal issue (insomnia), use empathy, psychoeducation, and curiosity to track insomnia symptoms, eventually arrive at nightmares, and then inquire about trauma. Focusing first on insomnia, then on nightmares, and later on trauma can help counselors form an alliance with clients who are initially reluctant to talk about death images and trauma experiences.

Focusing on Insomnia

Miguel was a 19-year-old cisgender heterosexual Latino male working on vocational skills at a Job Corps program. He arrived for his first session in dusty work clothes, staring at the counselor through squinted eyes; it was difficult to tell if Miguel was squinting to protect his eyes from masonry dust or to communicate distrust. However, because the client was referred by a physician for insomnia, he also might have just been sleepy.

Counselor: Hey Miguel. Thanks for coming in. The doctor sent me a note. She said you’re having trouble sleeping.

Miguel: Yeah. I don’t sleep.

Counselor: That sucks. Working all day when you’re not sleeping well must be rough.

Miguel: Yeah. But I’m fine. That’s how it is.

To start, Miguel minimizes distress. Whether you’re working with Alzheimer’s patients covering their memory deficits or five-year-olds who get caught lying, minimizing is a common strategy. When clients say, “I’m fine” or “It is what it is” they may be minimizing.

But Miguel was not fine. For many reasons (e.g., pride, shame, or age and ethnicity differences), he was reluctant to open up. However, given Miguel’s history of being in a gang and his estranged relationship with his parents, the expectation that he should quickly trust and confide in a white male adult stranger is not appropriate.

Rather than pursuing anything personal, the counselor communicated empathy and interest in Miguel’s insomnia experiences.

Counselor: Not being able to sleep can make for very long nights. What do you think makes it so hard for you sleep?

Miguel: I don’t know. I just don’t sleep.

When asked directly, Miguel declines to describe his sleep problems. Rather than continue with questioning, the counselor fills the room with words (i.e., psychoeducation). Psychoeducation is a good option because sitting in silence is socially painful and because multicultural experts recommend that counselors speak openly when working with clients from historically oppressed cultural groups (Sue & Sue, 2016). The reasoning goes: If counselors are open and transparent, culturally diverse clients can evaluate their counselor before sharing more about themselves. As Miguel’s counselor talks, Miguel can decide, based on what he hears, whether his counselor is safe, trustworthy, and credible. 

Counselor: Miguel, there are three main types of insomnia. There’s initial insomnia—that’s when it takes a long time, maybe an hour or more, to get to sleep. They call that difficulty falling asleep. There’s terminal insomnia—that’s when you fall asleep pretty well and sleep until maybe 3am and then wake up and can’t get back to sleep. They call that early morning awakening. Then there’s intermittent insomnia—that’s like being a light sleeper who wakes up over and over all night. They call that choppy sleep. Which of those fits for you?”

Miguel: I got all three. I can’t get to sleep. I can’t stay asleep. I can’t get back to sleep.

Counselor: That’s sounds terrible. It’s like a triple dose of bad sleep.

As Miguel begins opening up, he says “I haven’t slept in a week.” Although it’s obvious that zero minutes of sleep over a week isn’t accurate, for Miguel, it feels like he hasn’t slept in a week, and that’s what’s important.

Exploring Nightmares

After Miguel yawns, the counselor asks permission to share his thoughts.

Counselor: Miguel, if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you what I’m thinking. Is that okay?

Miguel: Sure. Fine.

Counselor: When someone says they’re having as much trouble sleeping as you’re having, there are usually two main reasons. The first is nightmares. Have you been having nightmares?

Miguel: Shit yeah. Like every night. When I fall asleep, nightmares start.

Counselor: Okay. Thanks. I’m pretty sure I can help you with nightmares. We can probably make them happen less often and be less bad in just a few meetings.

The counselor’s confidence is based on previous successful experiences, including using a nightmare treatment protocol that has empirical support (Imagery Rehearsal Therapy; Krakow & Zadra, 2010). Although evidence-based treatments aren’t effective for all clients, they can establish credibility and instill hope. Nevertheless, Miguel doesn’t immediately experience hope.

Miguel: Yeah. But these aren’t normal nightmares.

Counselor: What’s been happening?

Miguel: I keep having this dream where I’m sticking a gun in my mouth. People are all around me with their voices and shit telling me, “pull the trigger.” Then I wake up, but I can’t get it out of my head all day? What the hell is that all about?”

Counselor: That’s a great question.

When the counselor says, “That’s a great question,” his goal is to start a discussion about all the reasons why someone (Miguel in this case), might have a “gun in the mouth” dream. If Miguel and his counselor can brainstorm different explanations and possible meanings for the dream images, it’s less likely for Miguel to interpret his dream as a sign that he should die by suicide. What’s important, we tell our clients, is to look at many different possible meanings the unconscious or God or the Great Spirit or the universe or indigestion might be sending to the dreamer. To help clients expand their thinking and loosen up on their conclusions about their dream’s meaning, we’ve used statements like the following:

You may be right. Your dream might be about you dying or killing yourself. But our goal is to listen to the message your brain sent you and be open to what it might mean. It’s perfectly normal to think your dream was about you dying by suicide—but that’s not necessarily true. That’s not the way the brain and dreams usually work.               Some counselors use self-disclosure about dreams or nightmares they’ve had themselves. Others offer hypothetical or historical dream examples. Either way, normalizing nightmares helps clients become more comfortable talking about their bad dreams and nightmares.

To be continued . . . NEXT TIME . . . we ask about trauma.

If you’re interested in this content, you can buy the whole darn book from ACA here: https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail.aspx?id=78174

If you want the eBook, you can buy it through John Wiley & Sons: https://www.wiley.com/en-ai/Suicide+Assessment+and+Treatment+Planning%3A+A+Strengths+Based+Approach-p-9781119783619

The eBook is also available through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Suicide-Assessment-Treatment-Planning-Strengths-Based-ebook/dp/B08T7VNCMK/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&qid=1621798923&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Sommers-Flanagan%3BRita+Sommers-Flanagan&s=books&sr=1-9

Cool Counseling, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theory and Practice, Suicide Assessment and Intervention, Writing

Working in the Cognitive Dimension

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Today I’ve been putting together my powerpoints for the upcoming Nate Chute Foundation workshop. The NCF workshop is on two consecutive Tuesday evenings, starting this coming Tuesday.

While reviewing content for the ppts, I tried to pull all the intervention strategies from my brain, and failed. My excuse is that there are too many possible interventions for my small brain to memorize. As a consequence, I was forced to check out the “Practitioner Guidance and Key Points to Remember” sections at the end of all the intervention chapters. To give you a taste, here’s a photo of the “summary” page at the end of the cognitive chapter.

The Cognitive Dimension – Chapter Summary

Each of these bulleted items represents a potential method or strategy for intervening in the cognitive dimension with clients or students who are experiencing suicidality. I’m looking forward to talking about these strategies at the Nate Chute workshop, but rather than trying to commit them to memory (like Ebbinghaus would have), I’ll be using my powerpoint slides as a memory aid.

I hope you’re all having a great Sunday night.

John SF