Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury:

What We Know and What We Need to Know to

HELP Young People in Crisis

Dr. G i n a R. L a mz o n , RG C
gerlamzon@gmail.com
h t t p s : / / www. f a c e b o ok . c o m / bo dym i nd s pi r i t gl /
 Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury:
What We Know and What We Need to Know to
HELP Young People in Crisis

Dr. G i n a R. L a mz o n , RG C
gerlamzon@gmail.com
h t t p s : / / www. f a c e b o ok . c o m / bo dym i nd s pi r i t gl /
What’s your energy level?
Checking In
Checking In:
Connected or Disconnected?
Checking In
• What’s going well with you today?
• What’s the status of your own relationship with
yourSELF?
• What’s the most loving thing that you have
done for yourself today?
 What are you looking
forward to - especially for
this session?
Suicidal Behavior
and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
(NSSI):
What We Know
What We
Know

(DSM5-TR)
Suicidal Behavior (DSM5-TR)

• This category may be used for individuals who have engaged in potentially
self-injurious behavior with at least some intent to die as a result of the
act. Evidence of intent to end one’s life can be explicit or inferred from the
behavior or circumstances. A suicide attempt may or may not result in
actual self-injury. If the individual is dissuaded by another person or
changes his or her mind before initiating the behavior, this category does
not apply.
NSSI

• This category may be used for individuals who have

engaged in intentional self-inflicted damage to their body
of a sort likely to induce bleeding, bruising, or pain (e.g.,
cutting, burning, stabbing, hitting, excessive rubbing) in
the absence of suicidal intent.
What We Know
• Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among adolescents

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/adolescent-health.htm#:~:text=Leading%20causes%20of%20deaths%20among,Suicide
What We Know
 • Boys vs. Girls

What We
• Girls are 2x more
likely to attempt
suicide than boys.

Know • Boys are 4x more

likely to die by suicide
than girls.
Non-suicidal and Self-Injury (NSSI)
(Xiao, Song, Huang, Hou & Huang, 2022)

The aggregate prevalence of NSSI among a non-clinical sample of

adolescents was similar between over a lifetime (22.0%, 95% CI 17.9–26.6)
and during a 12-month period (23.2%, 95% CI 20.2–26.5).

Repetitive NSSI was more common than episodic NSSI (20.3% vs. 8.3%)
but the frequency of mild injury (12.6%) was similar to that of moderate injury
(11.6%).

Multiple-method NSSI occurred slightly more often compared than one-

method NSSI (16.0% vs. 11.1%).
Non-suicidal and Self-Injury (NSSI)
(Xiao, Song, Huang, Hou & Huang, 2022)

The top three types of NSSI in adolescents were

banging/hitting, pinching, and pulling hair, and the
least common type was swallowing drugs/toxic
substances/chemicals.

Subgroup analyses showed that being female,

smoking, drinking, having siblings, and belonging to a
single-parent family may be linked to higher prevalence
of NSSI.
Non-suicidal and Self-Injury (NSSI)
(Xiao, Song, Huang, Hou & Huang, 2022)

The meta-analysis found a high prevalence of NSSI in non-clinical sample of

adolescents, but there are some changes in severity, methods, and reasons.

Based on the current evidence, adolescents in modern society are more

inclined to implement NSSI behavior by a variety of ways, which usually are
repetitive, and moderate and severe injuries are gradually increasing.

Adolescents with siblings or in single-parent families are relatively more

likely to implement NSSI behavior due to maladjustment to the new family
model.
Risk Factors for NSSI
(Wang, Li, Ng, Xu,, Hu, & Yuan, 2022)

Mental Adverse
disorders Low health
childhood
literacy
experiences

Bullying,
The female Physical
problem
gender symptoms
behaviours
Three (3) specific risk factors used to assess NSSI

Social and
Family risk factors: Mental health risk
environment risk
parental mental health factors: MDD, PTSD,
factors: social isolation
problems, history of Bipolar, Disorder,
and rejection from
child abuse or neglect, Substance Use
peers, problems with
parent-child conflict Disorder
romantic relationships
 Risk factors for Suicidal Behavior
and NSSI are the same.
(based on a narrative systematic review of 64 articles by
Grandclerc, De Labrouhe, Spodenkiewicz, Lachal & Moro, 2016)
Difference between Adolescents who engage in NSSI don’t
indicate desire to end their lives, while
NSSI and suicidal those who attempt suicide may implicitly
behavior in terms or explicitly express desire to die.

of intention, Most adolescents with NSSI typically

repetition and engage in self-injurious acts repeatedly
whereas adolescents who attempt
lethality suicide usually do so only once or twice.

NSSI involves only mild to moderate

tissue damage, while suicide attempts
usually result in more serious damage.
Three ways NSSI confers risk of
suicide

Gateway Theory: Acquired Capacity

Third Variable
NSSI – suicide Theory: NSSI – as a
Theory: NSSI – via a
directly via increased result of desensitizing
third variable like
psychological person to the idea of
BPD or MDD
distress death
Currently known causes of NSSI
Learning Theory: How Modeling: Why
it is maintained over adolescents engage in Social Contagion:
time NSSI to begin with

• NSSI is learned • Many report that they • Modeling helps explain

through some type of first attempted social contagion.
reinforcement or it deliberate self-injury
would decrease over because it was • Tendency of NSSI to
time. modeled or described spread across peer
by a peer or the media. groups.
Currently known causes of NSSI
Emotional Dysregulation Childhood Maltreatment
• Individuals at risk for suicide and • 70% of adolescents and young adults
NSSI have difficulty modulating their who engage in NSSI report a history
emotions in adaptive ways. of child abuse neglect

• Specifically, they have trouble

identifying and tolerating negative • Sexual abuse is most common type
emotions, generating and associated with NSSI.
experiencing positive emotions, and
controlling emotions in manner that
• Pathways by which maltreatment
permits active coping with
leads to later NSSI: reactive,
psychosocial stress. So they use self-
regulatory, representational
injury as a maladaptive way to
regulate their emotions.
Currently known causes of NSSI
• Diathesis-Stress Model

• Individuals who experience certain cognitive, emotional, or social risks may

develop NSSI
• Risks
• Cognitive variables: emotional dysregulation and depression
• Social variables: history of maltreatment/current problems with
parents/peers that contribute to feelings of alienation and loneliness
 What is common in
those information?
Disconnection
Isolation
Separation
What is the general
ability of mental
health professionals • Very bad at predicting
to successfully
predict suicide?
Is NSSI a
predictor •YES
suicide?
What We Need to Know to Help?
• “Treatments focusing on enhancing
perceived meaning in life and building
positive relationships with others,
particularly parents, may be particularly
effective in reducing suicide risk among
youth with a history of NSSI.” (Whitlock, et al.,
2013).

• “The availability of social support in all its forms—

instrumental support, emotional support, support
with how you think about things—they all matter
and help us in facing challenges.” (Friedman, nd).
The Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Framework
(HuMAN [Human Rights-Based Mental Health Advocacy Network)
Humans as
Embodied Spirits
Source: philonotes.com
We have
become
disconnected
from SOURCE
 "Disease is caused by separation;
separation from the present
moment, separation within yourself,
Separation from others,
Separation from god/higher
being/source and lack of
communication...
Separation within the energy field
And physical body systems."
- (Quantum Techniques)

36
”
As a helper, am I
connected with
myself ?
How Much Do We Know About Ourselves:
The Person of the Helper
• How am I as a helper?
• How do we view ourselves?
• How do we view our students? Our clients?
• How do we feel about ourselves?
• How do we feel about our clients?
Emotions are
information.
• When we experience trauma, our
bodies may become rigid, holding in
the tension … and start to feel like
we are not really in control of them.

• May start feeling disconnected

from our body, making it
harder to feel happy in our skin.

Body
Awareness
We are embodied
energy beings.
We need to be
aware of the
language of our
body.
Am I a
Healing Presence?

WHAT FREQUENCY
AM I EMITTING?
The Energy Body
 The Energy Body:
Scientific Anchors
• Harold Burr: Life Fields

• Robert Becker: Transmission

of Information via EM Body
Fields

• Bevan Reid: Etheric Fields

• Rupert Sheldrake:
Morphogenetic Fields

• Rudolf Steiner: Etheric

Formative Forces
As energy beings, we affect each other in so
many ways…
www.heartmath.org
 HUMAN-EARTH CONNECTIVITY:
Correlations between the rhythms in solar and geomagnetic activity
and human health and wellness, as well as with major societal conflicts
such as violence, crime, terrorism and war (McCraty, 2015)
How Can We Help those in Crisis:
Connection through Co-Regulation

• Co-Regulation as a Biological Imperative

• “To connect and co-regulate with others is our biological
imperative. We experience this imperative as an inherent
quest for safety that can be reached only through successful
social relationships in which we co-regulate our behavior and
physiology” (The Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges).
What Do We
Need to
Know and Do
“The personhood or personality
to Help of counselors is as important,
if not more crucial, than their
BE ABLE TO mastery of knowledge, skills,
HEAL or techniques.”
YOURSELF (Cavanagh, 1990; Rogers, 1961)
FIRST.
“The personhood or personality
of counselors is as important,
if not more crucial, than their
mastery of knowledge, skills,
or techniques.”
(Cavanagh, 1990; Rogers, 1961)
Regulating Emotional Distress • A psychological acupressure that operates on the
through premise that no matter what part of your life needs
Emotional Freedom improvement, there are unresolved emotional issues
Techniques (EFT) or Tapping in the way.
The Energy Body Meridians

* 14 Meridians * 7 Energy
Centers
Energy Psychology (EP)
EP addresses the relationship of energy systems to emotion, cognition, behavior
and health. These systems and processes exist, and interact, within individuals and
between people. They are also influenced by cultural and environmental factors.

• Within an EP framework, emotional and physical issues are seen, and treated, as bio-
energetic patterns within a mind-body-energy system.

The mind and body are thought to be interwoven and interactive within this mind-body-
energy system, which involves complex communication involving neurobiological
processes, innate electrophysiology, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI),
consciousness, and cognitive-behavioral-emotional patterns.
What happens while tapping
on the EFT points?

• Excess energies,
emotions, and feelings get
loosened out of these
meridians and get
dissolved or neutralized.
Tapping Points
with 9 Gamut
The 9-Gamut Procedure:
Left and Right Brain Stimulation

Perform 9 steps while tapping “Gamut point” continuously.

1. Eyes closed.
2. Eyes open.
3. Eyes down hard right while holding the head steady.
4. Eyes down hard left while holding the head steady.
5. Roll eyes in a big slow circle at the extreme edge of peripheral vision.
(head still).
6. Roll eyes in a circle in the other direction.
7. Hum 2 seconds of a song.
8. Count fast from 1 to 5.
9. Hum 2 seconds of a song again.
EFT’s Full Basic Recipe
1. The Problem/Issue: Aim it at any emotional or physical problem.
2. Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS – Intensity Scale: 1 low - 10 high) (#1)
“Where do you feel it in the body?”
3. The “Set up Statement” (2 parts)
• “Even though I have this (problem) (and I feel it in my ______) , I deeply and completely accept myself.” 3x
4. Reminder Phrase: Choose a phrase that triggers the maximum emotional response while you are tapping
5. The 4 Steps of EFT’s Full Basic Recipe
• Step 1: Set-up Statement
• Step 2: Sequence of tapping (with reminder statements)
• Step 3: 9 Gamut
• Step 4: Sequence of tapping (with reminder statements)
6. SUDS (#2)

Source: https://heidiwells.com/how-to-do-eft-
tapping/?doing_wp_cron=1666305610.8381969928741455078125
EFT’s Shortcut: The Basic Recipe

3
1 2

Step 1: Set up Step 2: Sequence ** Leave the 9

statement while of tapping other Gamut, the second
tapping on the side points (with sequence, and the
of the hand reminder phrases) hand points
 A Format for
Using EFT

Source: https://heidiwells.com/how-to-do-eft-
tapping/?doing_wp_cron=1666305610.8381969928741455078125
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pJSyd
O311g&ab_channel=BradYates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66GupwT875Q&ab_channel=ElectricSoulHealing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy
bLy3LzuQY&ab_channel=BradYates
References
• American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Other Conditions that may be a Focus of Clinical Attention. In Diagnostic
and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.).

• Grandclerc, S., De Labrouhe, D., Spodenkiewicz, M., Lachal, J., & Moro, M. R. (2016). Relations between
Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescence: A Systematic Review. PloS one, 11(4), e0153760.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153760

• Wang, Y. J., Li, X., Ng, C. H., Xu, D. W., Hu, S., & Yuan, T. F. (2022). Risk factors for non -suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in
adolescents: A meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, 46, 101350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101350

• Whitlock, J., Muehlenkamp, J., Eckenrode, J., Purington, A., Baral Abrams, G., Barreira, P., & Kress, V. (2013). Nonsuicidal self-
injury as a gateway to suicide in young adults. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for
Adolescent Medicine, 52(4), 486–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.09.010

• Xiao, Q., Song, X., Huang, L., Hou, D., & Huang, X. (2022). Global prevalence and characteristics of non -suicidal self-
injury between 2010 and 2021 among a non-clinical sample of adolescents: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in
psychiatry, 13, 912441. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.912441
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9399519/

• https://quizlet.com/137704551/suicide-and-non-suicidal-self-injury-flash-cards/
Trauma Tapping Technique
(TTT)
• https://play-it-through.co.uk/2019/09/12/emotional-first-aid-trauma-tapping-technique/

Source: https://r4r.energypsych.org/?_ga=2.16884089.1543369804.1678320302-555170858.1677718232
2023/3/28
Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT)

• https://play-it-through.co.uk/2019/09/12/emotional-first-aid-trauma-tapping-technique/
2023/3/28