If you’ve ever been suicidal and talked openly about it, you’ve probably heard someone say — maybe gently, maybe emphatically — that you should see a therapist.
But many therapists have limited training in suicide, so finding the right one can be difficult.
“A lot of people go into this thinking a therapist is going to be able to support them through these crises, and they end up coming out incredibly disappointed,” said Dese’Rae L. Stage, a suicide survivor and founder of Live Through This, a project that amplifies the voices of attempt survivors.
Whitcomb Terpening, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of The Semicolon Group, a therapy practice in Houston that works exclusively on suicide, said suicidal people tend to fall into two buckets: Those who want help but haven’t been exposed to breakdowns in the mental health system, and those who’ve tried to seek help but have been turned off by the system because of “traumatizing experiences.”
“One of the things that I don’t think we think about is that even suicidal thoughts are on a spectrum.” – @deseraestage with @lttphoto
Here are tips that @CarterCenter Fellow @alia_e (’19-’20) gathered from experts on how to find qualified help: https://t.co/qkzHLGF4ak
— Carter Fellows (@CarterFellows) February 27, 2020