ABSTRACT
Self-harm and suicide are among the most challenging and frightening problems that you can encounter as a professional in the course of your work. The risk of clients harming themselves can debilitate you from acting creatively and collaboratively, and make your actions defensive, focused solely on risk assessment rather than therapeutic change. Yet it is precisely a creative and collaborative response, such as that engendered by solution-focused and other strengths-based therapies that is the most likely to facilitate change and re-empower clients to take back charge of their lives. This chapter describes some principles of a solution-focused approach to working with suicidal clients, which can be used in conjunction with traditional approaches and which focuses on establishing safety as well as assessing risk. Working from this model the clinician shifts to identifying client strengths and coping skills, to collaborating with the client to establish meaningful goals and to helping the client envision a positive future. Arguably, such an approach can increase collaboration between therapist and client and lead to a more client-centred safety plan.
