Do mental health providers’ own personal histories with suicide impact their interactions with and attitudes towards people experiencing suicide intensity? What happens when clinicians disclose their own suicide attempts to the public or to their clients? Does an “insider’s view” help a therapist to be more of an ally than an adversary? In this interview Dr. Stacey Freedenthal and I explore these questions as we have an in-depth conversation about her deep insights in helping the suicide person.

About Dr. Stacey Freedenthal

Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, is a tenured faculty member at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work where she teaches Suicide Assessment and Interventions, Assessment of Mental Health in Adults, Clinical Social Work Theory and Practice, and Social Justice Challenges in Mental Health Practice. She writes poignantly and powerfully about suicide. Her book, Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for Professionals, contains evidence-based instructions and advice for assessing risk, planning for safety and helping the suicidal person to build hope, coping skills and reasons for living. She has written more than 70 articles for her website SpeakingOfSuicide.com, a blog that has received over five million visitors since 2013.

Freedenthal started her journey working in the field of suicide prevention in 1994, when she volunteered at a suicide hotline. Subsequently, she earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. She held clinical positions in psychiatric emergency settings before returning to school to earn a PhD in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. Before Freedenthal became a social worker, she worked as a journalist for The Dallas Morning News.

Show Notes

Hunter, N. (2015). Clinical Trainees' Personal History of Suicidality and the Effects on Attitudes Towards Suicidal Patients. New School Psychology Bulletin. Vol. 13 Issue 1, p38-46. 9p.: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/12bb/b1efd5ee1f66aafc0095e8b43c95a7222f45.pdf

Kleiman, et al (2017). Digital phenotyping of suicidal thoughts. https://nocklab.fas.harvard.edu/files/nocklab/files/kleiman_et_al-2017-depression_and_anxiety.pdf

Conclusion: “Suicidal thinking has historically been studied as a homogeneous construct, but using newly available monitoring technology we discovered five profiles of suicidal thinking.”

Paris, J. (2017). Half in Love with Death: Managing the Chronically Suicidal Patient. https://www.amazon.com/Half-Love-Death-Managing-Chronically-ebook/dp/B075WRGG5P

Borges, A. (2019) I am not always very attached to being alive: Chronic, passive suicidal ideation is like living in the ocean. Let’s start talking about how to tread water. The Outline. https://theoutline.com/post/7267/living-with-passive-suicidal-ideation?zd=1&zi=knyaayok

Hom, M., Davis, L. & Joiner, T. (2018). Survivors of suicide attempts (SOSA) support group: Preliminary findings from an open-label trial. Psychological Services, 15(3):289-297. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30080086

Suicidologists with Lived Experience with Suicide

Dr. Bart Andrews https://livethroughthis.org/bart-andrews/

Dr. DeQuincy Lezine https://youtu.be/gi7MnK-ml7g

Dr. Marsha Linehan https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison https://www.amazon.com/Kay-Redfield-Jamison/e/B000AQ1IC8

Dr. Ursula Whiteside https://youtu.be/EHCqtkeIZy4