Psychotherapy and youth suicide prevention: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of specialist clinicians' experiences.

Psychotherapy and youth suicide prevention: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of specialist clinicians' experiences. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2020 Dec 07;: Authors: Janackovski A, Deane FP, Hains A Abstract The study explored psychologists' experiences in delivering short-term psychotherapy for suicidal adolescents and sought to clarify how these experiences fit with empirically supported interventions and the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 psychologists' who provided short-term psychotherapy in a suicide prevention program for youth (12-25-years-old). Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: (i) understanding the experience and context of the suicidality, and the importance of a formulation based approach to engagement and individualised treatment planning; (ii) involve broad support systems, and in particular families, to help the young person reduce feelings of burdensomeness and increase safety, connectedness, and belonging; and (iii) improve affect regulation and reflective functioning, important for the young person, but also for the support system to maximise the positive impact of supports via emotional co-regulation and effective problem-solving. Interventions and approaches as well as the potential underlying processes of change being targeted are discussed in lig...
Source: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Clin Psychol Psychother Source Type: research