
How to support someone who is self-harming
A person harming themselves is not attention-seeking but attention-needing. Reach in and show them you’re listening
by Rory O’Connor & Ellen Townsend
Rory O’Connor is professor of health psychology, and leads the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He is president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and author of When It Is Darkest: Why People Die by Suicide and What We Can Do to Prevent It (2021). He has published widely on the psychology of self-harm and suicide.