ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I propose a series of practice principles for therapeutic talk about suicide. These principles are based on several ways of knowing:
The context of clinical experience—what clients teach us about what works
The hard-earned wisdom of survivors (people who have been bereaved by suicide) and first voices (people who have lived and struggled with their own suicidal thoughts and actions)
The application of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) methods, as developed by Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer, and their colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee (e.g., Berg & de Shazer, 1994; Berg & Dolan, 2001; De Jong & Berg, 2002; de Shazer, 1985, 1988a, 1991a, 1994; de Shazer et al., 2007)
What the available literature tells us about what works (see Appendix B for a discussion of the evidence base)
