Self-Harm
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When an individual aims to hurt themselves on purpose, this is called self-harm. In general, the aim is not to kill themselves. However, these individuals are at a higher risk of suicide. Self-harm is more prevalent in women than men, but regardless of gender, this behaviour affects the lives of individuals and their loved ones negatively. At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, we understand that self-harm is complex. We offer treatment through an approach that addresses the emotional challenges surrounding it and the behaviour itself in order to provide care that treats the entire person and gives them tools to move forward with a new beginning.
Signs and Symptoms
Every individual who harms themselves has a unique reason for doing so. However, it is common for clients to strive to relieve themselves of discomfort, such as feelings of anger, loneliness, or hopelessness. When a client engages in self-harm, they leave signs that can be seen externally. Common examples of self-harm include:
- Cutting or piercing their skin with a sharp object
- Hitting themselves or the wall
- Burning themselves
Common signs and symptoms include:
- Wearing clothes that cover arms or legs in hot weather
- Scarring
- Consistent fresh cuts or bruises unrelated to other incidences
- Instability in emotions and behaviours
- Sharing feelings of worthlessness or persistent sadness
Impact of Self-Harm
While self-harm commonly causes an immediate sense of relief, it can cause clients and their loved ones to be negatively affected. Clients generally feel a sense of relief due to self-harm. However, feelings of shame and guilt are common after these events. In this way, this behaviour plays an integral role in a cycle of negative emotions such as shame, guilt, and anger.
Beyond the negative impact on the self, self-harming behaviours also have consequences on loved ones. It is common for family members to feel shame, guilt, and stress. Loved ones often do not know how to react, and the shock of discovering self-harm behaviours in a loved one can cause their mental health to worsen.
Accompanying Emotional Challenges
Commonly, self-harming behaviours are due to clients experiencing intense and challenging emotions. While these emotions vary, feelings of anger, loneliness, or hopelessness commonly occur before self-harm. This means that this behaviour comes with many accompanying emotional challenges. Getting to the root causes of the behaviour as a part of treatment is important and unique to each individual.
Effective Recovery Strategies for Self-Harm
While self-harm behaviours are complex, clients can recover. Healing is unique for each person. However, some foundational recovery strategies are effective in helping a client to successfully recover and move forward. Effective treatment includes helping a client to heal from the root causes of self-harm and building tools to manage the urge to harm themselves in the future.
Finding the root cause is very important in recovering from self-harm. The root causes are unique to each individual. However, they often include mental health challenges, trauma, or substance abuse. When a client recognises and heal from these root causes, they are more likely to effectively recover from self-harm behaviours as well.
In addition to addressing the root causes, learning new patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours is important. Therapeutic modalities like cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and others that address these patterns help clients build new and more effective patterns for recovery. New patterns help clients have healthier coping mechanisms when they experience emotions such as shame, anger, or loneliness that have contributed to their self-harm.
Treatment at PCP for Self-Harm
At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, we provide effective treatment for self-harm. Our approach integrates effective treatment with an individualised, empathetic, and personalised process. This unique blend helps clients facilitate changes in their mental health and self-harming behaviours that help them and their loved ones heal.
Individualised Treatment
While many factors are commonly found as root causes or contributing parts of self-harm, every individual’s experiences are unique. Our treatment for self-harm is highly individualised. This means that we work with each client separately to understand what is driving them to harm themselves. We examine their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, gathering as much information as possible.
Then, we take this information and formulate a treatment plan that addresses each aspect of their challenge. With this highly specific individualised plan, clients receive help with their specific issues related to self-harm through a combination of treatment modalities that truly address the deep root causes and build healthy coping methods for the future.
Empathetic and Personal Approach
At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, all staff members are in recovery of some sort. In addition, the majority of our staff has been with us for at least ten years. As a result, we have formed a family-type atmosphere that offers effective care in an empathetic and personal environment.
When clients enter our programmes, they enter into the family of PCP. They can expect to receive true empathy from clinicians who have experienced addiction and mental health challenges. In addition, clients receive personal care as we strive to connect with each and every client as a person first. As such, we offer a new beginning for individuals who are struggling with self-harm.
Self-harm, the act of causing pain purposefully, is commonly a result of pain and suffering without another way to release it. To learn more about how we at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project provide individualised, empathetic, and personalised care for self-harm, call us today at 08000 380 480 and speak with a staff member.