Friday, March 09, 2012

Natasha Mitchell - Self harm: how can we better understand and respond?


Natasha Mitchell has moved from All in the Mind to Life Matters, but she is still producing interesting and informative programs, such as this segment on self harm.

Part of what we see in self harm is incredible emotional and psychological pain, combined with little or no affect regulation. So cutting and scarring - physical pain - is the only way they know to numb the emotional pain. It acts in much the same way as using drugs to numb.
Self harm: how can we better understand and respond?
Broadcast:
Thursday 23 February 2012 9:05AM (view full episode)
Presented by Natasha Mitchell

It can be confronting, bewildering and shocking when someone deliberately hurts themselves.

Mental health nurse practitioner Geraldine White has been working with people who have self harmed for decades.

She currently works in consultant liaison mental health, being brought in to treat people who've intentionally injured themselves and then sought help at accident and emergency departments.

She describes self harm as an indication or expression of deep psychological pain, and believes it's critical that 'self harmers' are treated without judgment.

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