Short Course: Suicidality: Changing the Narrative ~ February 14, 2020

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America is in the midst of a suicide crisis. Last year, the Center for Disease Control released statistics showing that the rate of suicide increased by 33% between 1999 and 2017. Since 2008, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death for all ages. That rate only increases when there is a history of childhood abuse and neglect. Most therapists received little, if any training, about how to manage a suicidal crisis. Most of the training that is available focuses on ‘fixing’ the problem of suicide through prediction and prevention techniques.

In this presentation we will ask our participants to re-consider current understanding of suicidal behaviors as the problem, and demonstrate through case examples, how suicidality holds meaning for our clients, that requires exploration. We will present techniques to help clinicians work through the many emotional, practical, and ethical problems that can arise from an acute or chronic suicidal crisis. We hope that clinicians will leave with a new language and tools for a new kind of conversation about suicide, one that leaves both survivor and therapist with a sense of hope, in what has traditionally been a hopelessness inducing experience.

Participants in this short course will be able to:

1. Identify 3 current narratives that make working through a suicidal crisis so difficult for both clinicians and survivors of abuse and neglect.
2. Identify and describe how suicidal behaviors have meaning and often serve as a complex coping mechanism for survivors of abuse and neglect.
3. Help survivors of abuse and neglect to reframe the suicidal crisis by identifying the underlying meaning connected to suicidal behaviors.

This program is appropriate for clinicians at all levels of experience and offers 3 CEs.

About our Speakers:

Simone Jacobs, MSW, LCSW-C is a graduate of Kings College, London University and Smith College School of Social Work. Since obtaining her MSW over 10 years ago, she has focused her training and experience on working with survivors of trauma. She first became interested in working with trauma when she interned at The Center: Posttraumatic Disorders Program, where Joanne was her supervisor. She runs a small group practice, in Takoma Park, MD with a focus on working with survivors of trauma and women of color.

Joanne Zucchetto, LICSW, LCSW-C is a graduate of Hunter College in New York, and University of Maryland’s School of Social Work. She has been a trauma therapist for over 20 years, working in two of the most established trauma treatment programs in the country, at Shepard Pratt and at The Center: Posttraumatic Disorders Program. She is currently running a busy private practice in Friendship Heights, and is the co-author of a new book, “Understanding the Paradox of Surviving Childhood Trauma.”