Books

Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts

If you love someone who has suicidal thoughts, you may struggle with profound fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. You desperately want to help, but you’re unsure of where to start. This book can guide you as you support your loved one—without sacrificing your own needs and well-being. You’ll find the answers to some of your most urgent questions, including:

  • What are signs and clues of suicide risk?
  • How do I talk with my loved one about their suicidal thoughts?
  • When should I call the police?
  • What do I say and do after a suicide attempt?
  • What treatments for suicidality are available?
  • How can I help the person I care about stay safe?
  • What can I do to help them feel better, too?
  • What can I do to cope better?
  • What does recovery look like after a suicidal crisis?

Written by a psychotherapist with decades of clinical experience in suicidology, this compassionate guide offers essential communication techniques you can use to help your loved one, as well as strategies for navigating your own stress, worry, fear, and anxiety. Drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindful self-compassion, the tools in this book will help you recognize warning signs, improve communication, create a safety plan, know when to seek professional help, and support a loved one in crisis.

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Helping the Suicidal Person

Helping the Suicidal Person provides a highly practical toolbox for mental health professionals. The book first covers the need for professionals to examine their own personal experiences and fears around suicide, moves into essential areas of risk assessment, safety planning, and treatment planning, and then provides a rich assortment of tips for reducing the person’s suicidal danger and rebuilding the wish to live. The techniques described in the book can be interspersed into any type of therapy, no matter what the professional’s theoretical orientation is and no matter whether it’s the client’s 1st, 10th, or 100th session. Clinicians don’t need to read this book in any particular order, or even read all of it. Open the book to any page, and find a useful tip or technique that can be applied immediately.

Buy Here:

Helping the Suicidal Person

Helping the Suicidal Person provides a highly practical toolbox for mental health professionals. The book first covers the need for professionals to examine their own personal experiences and fears around suicide, moves into essential areas of risk assessment, safety planning, and treatment planning, and then provides a rich assortment of tips for reducing the person’s suicidal danger and rebuilding the wish to live. The techniques described in the book can be interspersed into any type of therapy, no matter what the professional’s theoretical orientation is and no matter whether it’s the client’s 1st, 10th, or 100th session. Clinicians don’t need to read this book in any particular order, or even read all of it. Open the book to any page, and find a useful tip or technique that can be applied immediately.

Buy Here:

Praise for Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts

"...this book deals with all of the big questions around supporting a loved one who is suicidal. A must-read!"

—Rory O’Connor, PhD, director of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab at the University of Glasgow, 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

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