Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews an esteemed guest, Dr. Stacey Freedenthal on the important subject of how to support someone who shares with you that they’re considering suicide.
In this episode you’ll hear Stacey normalizing the common experience of having suicidal thoughts and clarify what happens when people tell mental health professionals they’re having suicidal thoughts.
Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, is recognized for her expertise in helping people who have suicidal thoughts. She authored the books Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for Professionals (Routledge; 2018) and Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do (New Harbinger Publications; scheduled to be published Jan. 2, 2023).
Dr. Freedenthal created and maintains the website Speaking of Suicide, which has had more than six million views in ten years. She has authored or co-authored two dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters about suicidal intent, youth suicidality, and other topics related to suicide.
Resources
Find Stacey’s Speaking of Suicide website here
Visit Stacey’s website staceyfreedenthal.com here
Stacey shared the “Cats As Anti-Depressants” meme, which she found as a sticker available for purchase.
She paraphrased this quote during our conversation and shared the exact words and source: From the Walker Percy novel, “The Moviegoer.” “Suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I’m as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself – ah, then, I would.”
When Therapists Struggle With Suicidality from Psychotherapy Networker by Stacey Freedenthal
A Suicide Therapist’s Secret Past from the New York Times by Stacey Freedenthal
Find Stacey Freedenthal’s newest book, Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do on Amazon
Find Stacey’s first book, “Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques forProfessionals” on Amazon here
Other resources:
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