recovery

Working With Suicidal Clients

/ bonniezieman

It’s always a challenge for any therapist to realize that the client sitting across from them is suicidal. How do you walk the fine line between acknowledging the depth of their despair and the need to keep them alive so that they can work through the despair, or at least survive until the conditions at the root of the despair attenuate or pass?

In the following excerpt from my new book, “The Challenge to Heal“, I outline one technique I used while working with suicidal clients. As mentioned in the excerpt, it is a strategy one can also use for oneself if suicidal ideation is a problem.

“When I have clients that present as suicidal, I explain to them that it is pointless to do the hard work of therapy if they are only going to turn around and kill themselves. Why put themselves through the angst? I tell the client, “If, we are going to invest ourselves in the hard work of therapy, I will only do so if we agree to a ‘time-limited contract’ that you will make no attempt to terminate your life during the work.”

The client then decides on the duration of the ‘contract’, with the majority of them agreeing to make no attempts for anywhere from a month to six months. Clients surprisingly step up to the challenge of a time-limited no suicide contract. (This always pleases me, for I invariably expect the client to reluctantly say they will only agree for a week or two. But they co-operate with the suggestion for a no-suicide contract – which has me convinced that there is always a part of the self that wants to hold on to life.) We agree that at the end of the contract we will see where things stand and, if necessary, renegotiate another no suicide contract. By the end of the first contract, clients have gained a fresh point of view, new coping skills, and frequently during the postponement, their personal circumstances change, enough to make suicide irrelevant and unthinkable.

You could challenge yourself with this same time-limited, no-suicide contract. Consider making a contract with yourself to postpone ending your life for two or three months (whatever time period you choose) and see if you still feel the same then. You are still entirely in control and retain all your options. But, for now, you stay alive by contracting with yourself to delay your demise.

Why not contract with yourself that you will delay acting on the impulse to suicide until you have completed reading this book (The Challenge to Heal) and used some of the techniques offered to help you manage difficult emotional states? With the time gained, seek professional help and/or engage in serious self-care and self-help work on your own.” (The Challenge to Heal, page 84)

If you would like to read more tips on how cope with suicidal thoughts and how to manage difficult feelings such as grief, anger, fear, guilt, shame, etc., check out my book, “The Challenge to Heal” here on Amazon.com.

 

The Challenge to Heal

/ bonniezieman

It’s been two years since my first book “Exiting the JW Cult: A Healing Handbook” was released. So much positive feedback about this book has been received since its publication. Nothing is more satisfying than hearing how much this book has helped people recover from the consequences of being deceived, controlled and then once they dare to leave that particular cult, shunned.

The response has made all the work involved in writing and publishing the book so worthwhile! Some individuals appreciated the book so much that they came back and purchased 5 and 10 books at a time, with one person even purchasing 25 copies of the book! Now that’s positive feedback! Thank you everyone for your support and invariably positive feedback.

I’m excited to announce a revised and expanded version of “Exiting the JW Cult”. The new book is entitled, “The Challenge to Heal – A Recovery Guide to help reclaim your life after leaving any high-control group.”

This new book does not negate the value of “Exiting the JW Cult”, and if you have that original book you have a great recovery guide and do not need to purchase this new book, unless upon viewing the new Table of Contents, you decide there is new and valuable information you wish to access.

Here are three paragraphs from the Preface to the new book which describe its evolution and application: “This book is a revised and expanded version of one of my previous books entitled, “Exiting the JW Cult: A Healing Handbook”. While that book has been well-received by its niche market of current and former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses pseudo-religious sect, feedback was received from a highly-respected anti-undue-influence activist expressing disappointment that the book had been designed for victims of only one high-control group instead of offering the vital recovery information to the entire spectrum of victims of coercive groups around the globe.

The rationale for the original book had been to write for victims of the cult with which I was most familiar – the one in which I had spent thirty long years – before leaving, attending university and becoming a psychotherapist. The feedback about adapting the original book for all who have suffered at the hands of high-control groups had merit – thus this revised and expanded version entitled, “The Challenge to Heal”.

“The Challenge to Heal” is, for all intents and purposes, a new book. It has eight new chapters and most chapters still included from the other book have been edited and/or expanded. “The Challenge to Heal” addresses several topics in greater depth, including: fear, anger, loneliness, trust, grief, suicide, forgiveness, learned helplessness, the hero’s journey and psychotherapy – which are not included in any significant measure in the other book. There are also many new tips in Chapter 20 of this book on how to manage the difficult situations and emotional states that arise after being deceived, coerced, exploited, controlled and even ostracized.

The Challenge to Heal is designed as a psychoeducational resource for people who have endured and escaped traumatic, challenging situations in: radical extremist groups, terrorist cells, counterculture communes, Eastern religion cults, multi-marketing schemes, polygamist sects, fundamentalist religious factions, radical political movements, sex-trafficking rings, racial supremacist groups, extremist human potential movements, rehab/therapy cults, new age cults, cults of personality, human trafficking organizations, criminal gangs, high-control abusive relationships, etc.”

The above pictured, revised, and expanded book contains 280 pages packed full of helpful information for recovery from coercive controls of any kind. “The Challenge to Heal – A Recovery Guide to help reclaim your life after leaving any high-control group” is now available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and print versions.

The companion volume to the above book (pictured to the right) is now available and entitled: “The Challenge to Heal Workbook & Journal“.  It is an 8.5″ x 11”, lined workbook based on “The Challenge to Heal“.   Check it out here.