I'm scheduled to give a talk on grief as it relates to suicide for a bunch of therapists in February. It's my first gig where people are actually paying to hear me talk. I'm hoping it will be interesting and informative. I know the topic of suicide tends to turn people off and / or overwhelm people rather quickly, therapists included.

I've been working with survivors of suicide for a few years now both individually and in short term grief groups. I have noticed that all grief seems to hav... read more

Words keep popping up in the therapeutic lexicon that really rub me the wrong way.

The title is an example.

Self medicate.

As in "The person cuts in order to self medicate." or
"The heroin addict was using in an attempt at self medicating."

The terminology immediately makes one jump to a pharmaceutical solution.
And maybe a pharmaceutical solution is what is needed. However, there are other options. I feel the other options get erased by the language used.


Because what ... read more