The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

Self-Injury Recovery: A Person-Centered Approach, with Drs. Stephen Lewis & Penny Hasking

Episode Summary

Stephen Lewis, PhD, & Penelope Hasking, PhD, introduce a new way of thinking about self-injury, self-harm, and recovery.

Episode Notes

In this episode, ISSS Past Presidents Dr. Stephen Lewis from the University of Guelph in Canada, and Dr. Penelope Hasking from Curtin University in Australia talk about a new way of understanding self-injury and self-harm, with a special focus on recovery. In their person-centered approach, they emphasize the perspective of lived experience, move away from a "why don't you just stop" mentality, normalize ongoing self-injury thoughts and urges, and discuss strengths, scarring, and disclosures. 

Follow Drs. Lewis and Hasking on Twitter at @SPLewisPhD and @PennyHasking. Keep up with Dr. Lewis' non-profit outreach organization Self-Injury Outreach & Support at @sioutreach, and follow Dr. Hasking's research in the Emotional Health and Self-Injury Research Group at @NSSI_RG

Below are links to their book and a couple of their articles referenced in this episode:

  1. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. A. (2023). Understanding self-injury: A person-centered approach. Oxford University Press.
  2. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. A. (2021). Understanding self-injury: A person-centered approach. Psychiatric Services, 72(6), 721-723.
  3. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. (2019). Putting the “self” in self-injury research: Inclusion of people with lived experience in the research process. Psychiatric Services, 70(11), 1058-1060.

To read more about person-first language and identity-first language when referencing autism, click here and also visit https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36237135/. To read about language used to discuss race and ethnicity, click here

Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter (@ITripleS).

The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated #5 by Feedspot in their "Best 20 Clinical Psychology Podcasts" and by Welp Magazine in their "20 Best Injury Podcasts."