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Live Webinar - 3.5 hours
How to help young people who self harm
– how to react, support and move forward
Join self-harm expert Emily Gajewski to discover how to help a young person who self-harms – gain the insights and skills you need to approach this distressing subject respectfully and safely, a better understanding of what self-harm is, why young people self-harm, and much more…
Course Factfile
How to help young people who self harm Online Webinar
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Date: Thurs 8th May 2025
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Accredited CPD Certificate: 3.5 hours
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Length: 3.5 hours (with breaks)
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Start time: 9.15am BST (until 1.30pm)
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Tutor: Emily Gajewski
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Limited places available
- Price: £49 per person
Price includes course notes, live tutor Q&A and access to a recording of the event
£49.00
Book your place
Select a date
"This is one of the best self-harm trainings I’ve had, honestly..."
Emily Love, Primary Prevention Worker
Live Online Webinar – Join Emily Gajewski – an expert in helping people overcome self-harm – for her live webinar. All you need is a quiet place to watch, a computer or tablet and a strong internet signal, the rest is easy. Book your place and we’ll email you confirmation – you’ll receive your Zoom link the day before the event.
RECORDING – the training is recorded in case anyone experiences technical difficulties – or you can’t attend on the day – so you will also get a recording for a limited time afterwards to maximise your learning.
Can’t make this date? Register your interest below – and we’ll email you when a new date is available.
The aim of this live online training with Emily Gajewski, a highly experienced psychotherapist specialising in treating self-harm, is to give you a thorough, in-depth understanding of why young people self-harm and how to approach/react when helping someone in both the short and long term, including the essential skills most likely to effectively support the young person on their journey to find less harmful ways of coping – the webinar focuses on the most evidence-based knowledge and skills in this area. It will also help you find ways of calming yourself in moments of overwhelm to ensure that you can be as supportive and helpful as you’d like to be.
Why you should attend
With the ever changing, uncertain world we live in creating a vast amount of pressure on children – emotionally and physically – more children and teenagers are experiencing extremely stressful, distressing situations, with many looking for coping mechanisms to help them deal with their negative thoughts, feelings and emotions. Self harm (including self injury) is hugely on the increase and rates are higher than ever since Covid-19 and the long periods of isolation and uncertainty young people have experienced in ‘lock downs’.
A survey of 61 secondary school children by charity Place2Be, shows self-harm reports increased by 77%, from 48 to 85, from August to September 2021.
Finding the right words to approach self-harming can be difficult – this online webinar was created to help you (parents, carers, teachers) approach this topic with empathy and confidence. Discovering that a young person you are caring for is self harming can be an extremely stressful situation. When we are highly emotional, it can cause us to react in desperate ways, which are often not helpful or supportive to the young person, even if our intentions are totally well-meaning.
“A really helpful, caring approach – it has clarified so much for me and I can now see a sensible way forward.”
Martin, Parent.
This course is relevant to a range of self-harming behaviours including:
- self-injury
- cutting, ripping or carving skin
- burning skin
- punching or hitting themselves
- scratching or pinching (including dermatillomania)
- poisoning themselves with tablets or liquids (or similar)
- over-eating and under-eating (anorexia or bulimia)
- biting yourself (dermatophagia)
- inserting objects into your body
- overdosing, exercising excessively
- pulling your hair (trichotillomania)
- getting into fights where you know you will get hurt
What you will learn
- What is self-harm?
- Why young people self-harm
- How common is self-harming
- How to approach the subject (building rapport, trust…)
- How to react if your child (or any young person) tells you they are self harming (what not to say and do)
- The distinction between self harm and a suicide attempt
- The addictive element to self harm
- How to help a young person break the addictive pattern
- Helping a child in the short- and long term
- The influence of social media and peers
- Keeping your child safe
- Looking after yourself (managing stress, anxiety and worry for the household)
- Finding professional help
Who this training is suitable for
- Parents, other family members and/or carers of children and young people who are at risk of self harming or currently self harming.
- Anyone who works with young people and needs to know how best to help when someone discloses that they self-harm or who they suspect may be self-harming.
- Therapists and counsellors who want to gain a better understanding so they can support families with a member who self harms.
Course Programme
The ‘How to help young people who self harm’ live online webinar starts at 9.15am and runs until 1.30pm (GMT).
This course has been independently accredited by the internationally recognised CPD Standards Office for 3.5 hours of CPD training.
On completion of this training you’ll receive CPD certificates from the College and the CPD Standards Office.
Register your interest – next date
Please complete the form below and we’ll email you when another date becomes available.
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Reviews for this course
4.8/5 (87 Reviews)
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How to help young people who self harm
Thurs 8th May 2025 £49.00
Thurs 8th May 2025 £49.00
I was so impressed by this training. Emily is clearly hugely experienced both in practice and in terms of the research underpinning her approaches. Extensive material was sensitively delivered, with appropriate breaks and time for small-group discussion. I learned a lot and very much appreciated Emily’s intelligent and confident delivery on a challenging topic
I have really valued the webinar for how informative it was. Emily is very knowledgable and shares the insights in an easy to follow and assimilate way. Thank you.
This was a great workshop. Clearly delivered and very informative. I would highly recommend the speaker and the company as I got a lot out of the day.
Interesting, informative and backed up by research. Great ideas for supporting people with self harm.
I attended this to gain a greater understanding of why young people self harm and how best to support them. The training was very helpful. Appreciated the supporting documentation and links to further help and advice.
So informative. I really feel like I have come away from this course armed with so many tools to help my YP’s. Thank you.
This was such a useful training, I highly recommend it to anyone working with young people or those who self-harm. It covered the reasons behind self-harm, how to manage it now and going forward. Some really moving videos helped to make it real and gave an insightful personal account from those who are recovering. It also covered how to involve and educate parents, helping to manage it at home. Thank you Emily and everyone who contributed on the day.
I found that the content was pitched exactly right for me. I have taken away further understanding of self-harm and some practical ideas to share with schools that I work with. Thank you Emily!
Emily was a confident presenter. She was really experienced and backed up all information with evidence. The resources suggested were excellent. Very professionally run course with Arlene sending all information as it was needed.
I would highly recommend this course to professionals and definitely parents of children/ young people who self harm.
Emily gave a clear and compassionate understanding of and insight into self-harming in young folk. Her advice to therapists and parents is invaluable and practical . Thanks so much .
Really good content but felt rushed and not enough breaks considering the topic.
Excellent content with fantastic notes and references
Really informative . A great use of real life experiences to teach the core understanding and support required by young people with self harm. I appreciated the reference relating to supporting parents too as this also comes into situations in my role as a school counsellor
Comprehensive amount of information in this half day webinar which was delivered at a comfortable pace by Emily – an extremely knowledgeable and experienced facilitator.
Emily was excellent in her presentation of this topic. The handouts were good with lots of extra add on’s as the morning progressed for extra reading and videos. Also Emily expanded well on the course manual with explanations and examples, which in turn aided learning. The LEAP model was new to me and an excellent tool for creating change and supporting parents with children that self harm.
Overall I would recommend this course for therapists as well as adults that are working with, or living with children that self harm
Excellent content, delivery and timing. Immediately useful and great resources to develop further. I always learn so much both personally and professionally from HG courses. Thank you.
Emily is an excellent trainer and clearly has a lot of experience in her craft! I have come away feeling more confident and fully resourced! As always, the Human Givens training hasn’t disappointed!
Excellent training, at a good pace and covering a lot of information.
Helpful and informative and thoroughly enjoyable
This online training about ‘helping young people with self-harm’ was really excellent and thoroughly covered a highly emotive and increasingly prevalent subject. Emily covered this topic with a genuine caring and sensitive approach. I feel more confident about understanding the reasons why self harm happens and managing ways to help people. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend as a course. It heightens awareness and dispels some misconceptions whilst giving strategies that work to help those that self harm.
A very informative and compassionate look at self harm. Inspired, I went into school and discussed some of the things I had learned with my step-daughter’s teacher. Later I gave her a “safe box” and talked about the things she could put in there including plasters and hand cream. Suddenly she got up and came and hugged me, crying and said thank you. I told her I loved her and she said it back. It was a beautiful, defining moment in our relationship. So I wanted to thank you for that
As an experienced Human Givens therapist, it was good to be reminded of the vital importance of needs met and problem-solving and of the close linkages with addictive behaviours. My specific purpose was to help my daughter (from my second marriage) who self-harms. I have more to offer her now, for which I’m grateful.
Emily presented the morning very well and gave great insight into this problem with young people and the problems parents experience with their children. The handouts were very good with plenty of additional input around each slide as she went through the morning.
Very well presented, time to digest and ask questions and the content was extremely useful. Lots of ideas to take into my work and also to use as a parent. Useful for parents as so informative.
The course was advertised as a course for parents, carers and professionals. In practice, this particular course was weighted heavily in the direction of professionals, with only one other person offering, during introductions, that he was a step-parent to a young person who had self-harmed. He was also a trainee psychotherapist or counsellor. As such, there was a large amount of professional speak, professional in-words/buzz-words that made it very difficult for me to both understand at times, and to feel included. Several times I noted sentences such as, ‘we have a hard time getting parents to admit…,’ ‘parents are likely going to resist…,”parents are going to feel terribly guilty about…’ and, ‘our job is to convince parents that…’ I wrote to the facilitator in the dialogue/message box, about two-thirds into the course that I was feeling excluded. My concern was noted with a, ‘sorry about that’. Courses such as these ‘need to do what they say on the tin’. I was participating as a parent to a young person who is self-harming. When we undertook the exercise to go into “break-out groups”, to discuss a young person with whom we worked, I had nothing to offer apart from to engage in polite conversation with my two other group members, as I was obviously not going to discuss my child. Please do better in the future. One way this could be achieved is by blending the course participants in a reasonable ratio of parents to professionals. Or consider holding parent-only courses and professional-only courses. The effect of this particular course has left me not wanting to return to the HGI for further training.
If one could put everything into a condensed form that all parents and professionals (be they social workers, medical staff or teachers) need to know about self-harm and how to help, this is the place to go!
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 section 45 “Mental Health”, brought mental health into the safeguarding arena. Schools now have to meet the mental health needs of our young people. It would be so good if in the September INSET training day, safeguarding refresher for all staff, a recording of Emily’s workshop could be shown. Not just the pastoral staff but the class teachers too. I am sure School Governing bodies would find this a helpful resource.
The webinar kept my interest the whole way through. I felt it was very appropriate for my work in schools. I liked the videos included as they gave a great personal prospective to self harm. The pace felt perfect and I was thankful of the information that was emailed in advance.
I feel that the knowledge I gained today will be really useful to integrate with my way of working.
Simple, effective, instructive and thought inducing
This course was brilliant. There was so much useful and valuable information to take in, but the delivery was very well organised and presented in a precise manner which kept ones attention and interest in a perfect flow. Thank you so much.
The webinar was informative and helpful for rethinking ways of being in the moment with the person self harming. I especially liked the thinking around emotional needs as it made a lot of sense to identify areas where support can be given to target the underlying cause of self harm to eventually stop it, rather than trying to prevent it being done.
The webinar was really helpful in addressing the issues of self-harm, the cycle, the underlying causes and most importantly finding ways to understand and support those struggling with a compassionate attitude. Well hosted and excellent resources, I found it extremely helpful both on a personal and professional level.
This was my first experience of a Human Givens course – I was very impressed by Emily’s expertise and her sheer humanity. The course itself was clearly very well prepared and packed with resources for a wider use base (therapists/other professionals/clients/parents). Despite limited time there was space for interaction and questions. Highly recommended to both professionals and family members of people who self harm.
I attended this webinar as a therapist and grandmother of a teenager who has just started to self harm. The webinar was very informative and sensitively delivered and Emily is obviously very experience in this field. I did find that watching it with am emotional attachment quite difficult, but Emily was quite clear about looking after ourselves.
Information was clearly given by Emily who is obviously very experienced in this field. Extremely useful tips and insights about treating self harm with young people who need special consideration when helping them get their needs met, particularly regarding their stage of brain development. The videos were a valuable learning tool and the reference list given will be useful reading around the subject. It was an important add-on to the course I took with Emily on addiction and will help me with my work generally with clients.
This webinar was very informative and dealt with the complex problem of self harm. I was very impressed with the scope and depth of the solution because the focus followed the Human Givens principals which are of an emphatic person centred approach.
I found the course hugely helpful. As a counsellor I will use the needs framework to give clients insights into what is going on for them. The subject matter was sensitively approached and although not an easy subject, I am so glad I did it and will now have greater confidence in working with young people and parents and self harming behaviours.
I found it useful to understand the up to date guidance in this area and to have access to resources as well as hearing other attendee’s experiences.
This training fulfilled the goal of providing information on how to read, support and help young people who self harm as well as provided practical information on self compassion. Highly recommended.
I really welcomed Emily’s warmth and compassion in how she approached this area. She is an excellent communicator and is obviously well read in the subject. Her depth of knowledge and extensive work history gave a richness to her training that I very much appreciated. The use of client testimonies about their self harm journeys, and what they would have wanted from a clinician, brought the dimension of the client’s voice into the day. This element is not often heard in therapeutic training and was incredibly valuable. Thank you Emily.
Having done previous webinars with Human Givens I found this to be just as informative. Having great techniques and knowledge to enable me to better support not just the young people I work with, but my own children too,
Excellent – good mix of theory and clinical expertise mixed with real client experiences.
Excellent explanation of what self harm is, and how to help young people practice harm minimisation and safer self harm which are totally new concepts to me.
Very well done, with very helpful information and tips.
I can’t thank you enough for this course. It was not only informative in theory but also gave so much practical help and advice. The whole approach was fully empathetic and understanding, the concerns and questions answered after considering them thoroughly and with compassion.
This was one of the best webinars I have attended recently. It was well-paced, very clear, full of helpful and accessible information delivered in a calm and helpful way. I very much liked the addition of short videos, especially the two women patients. The whole time felt very human and nurturing – Emily was able to speak with and to, and not at. A very good experience.
So, so useful and well put together. Not an obvious or indeed straightforward therapeutical approach, especially if helping loved ones, but makes utter sense. I wish I’d seen this a long time ago ….
Emily’s wide experience and depth of knowledge on the subject, and her application of HG organising ideas to it, produced a highly informative course.
I think the course was clear and relevant and I felt Emily presented in a way that was interesting and thought-provoking. The handouts were useful to reinforce the content of the course, and to recommend useful follow-up resources. I think the admin support from Fiona was also very good. Thank you.
I thoroughly enjoyed the training. It has provided me with a wealth of information and useful strategies to use with the young people I support. Emily’s delivery was calm, in depth and she answered an array of questions in a supportive manner. The resources provided are brilliant and overall I have been inspired to further my learning in this area.
I found Emily easy to understand and her explanations very clear. Emily gave good time to ask questions and kept the course going at a comfortable speed. I believe Emily was mindful, there was a parent on the course, and she was able to have the empathy whilst talking about self-harm whilst still being ‘real’.
I thought everything about this course was brilliant, from information and handouts, link to further reading and delivery. It was a good pace and excellent use of videos from real clients. I learnt a lot.
The course content is excellent, and Emily’s manner of delivery is so calm, understanding of different perspectives and so relevant to the challenges faced by young people in today’s environment. It is full of practical skills and tips that have helped me to feel more confident in talking about self-harm and suicide when working with young people. I am going to use the information from this course to inform the way we plan for and interact with young people and their families, and ensure that with the team of volunteers that we work with have best practice when helping and talking to people who are self-harming.
Emily covered so much in this short session, but in a really clear and informative way. It was especially valuable to have the first-hand video testimony from the two women that Emily had interviewed. As well as clear insights into why people might self-harm, there were practical solutions as well – all so helpful. I came away feeling much more empowered to work with young people who self harm (and their care givers). Thank you again Emily
I don’t often deal with younger people in my practice, but had been alerted to this area I had neglected because a parent had contacted me regarding their son. Emily’s presentation and content turned out to be really helpful in understanding the various aspects of self harm, and how to approach it. We will, no doubt, be discussing this content in our peer group soon.
As always, Human Givens delivered a content-filled and very interesting course. Good value for money and fabulous presenter.
The course was excellent – well-structured with relevant examples and actual strategies that I have already started using with clients. I thought Emily was incredibly knowledgeable and delivered the course with sensitivity. It sparked my passion even more. I would like to do the longer training with her.
Very informative, and video content really valuable to enhance understanding. Great training – thank you Emily.
Really interesting information packed course that provides a good insight into the whys and self-harm, as well as the best ways to help. Thank you.
Very useful information and practice to guide working with young people who self harm.
Useful resources and insights.
A really good refresher, having attended the course a few years ago during training with Joe and Ivan. Emily is so compassionate in her delivery of the subject matter, it being so sensitive, however being able to give hope in the most dire of circumstances. Helping self harm clients in having a sense of control being an important part of that, really came through. Also the education of others to understand the emotional needs and their importance in the whole picture of recovery. Brilliant day
A highly informative, confidence building and fearless course to shed light on one of the most sensitive areas of client/therapist work. The wealth of signposting information and pyscho-education tools exceeded expectations.
Really impactful, great content. Brilliantly paced. An excellent course – I fully recommend it.
This is one of the best trainings I’ve had, honestly. Although there was a lot of being spoken to, I didn’t find it too much or boring at all. I felt Emily had a really great knowledge of young people who self harm, and was able to share that with us really well and really clearly. I found this training hugely insightful and there are things I’ve learnt that I will probably take forward with me in my career(and personal life) for years.
I felt it essential that I attend the courses as I am working with children and teenagers. I now feel more confident in dealing with this issue of self-harm and how to support people who self-harm. There were many great take-aways and Emily was excellent at discussing and answering any queries or questions that we all had. Thank you very much for the insightful course and the recording which will be most beneficial to watch again.
Even if someone has years of experience they can still learn something new. Loved the way it was for therapists but also for others, like parents. I was not rushed where times I had to keep up being dyslexic – it was at a great pace. Plenty of time was given if someone had a question and not just either dismissed brushed over it. I love learning and found some really useful tools. Very sensitive topic delivered in a gentle but informative way. Thank you.
Found the course extremely insightful and helpful and held my attention throughout. The information and presentation was excellent and the video client experiences were so useful to listen to and learn from them. I also really enjoyed the self-compassion exercise – what a lovely way to end the webinar – who doesn’t need some of that? It was also good to meet different counsellors and therapists and have their take on things. This will definitely help me in my work with teenagers who are self-harming and in general too for clients who are self-harming in other ways.
I had delayed doing this course as it is a difficult subject, however, various families have spoken of their difficulties, so I couldn’t delay any longer. Emily Gajewski provided a calm, intimate, encouraging learning space. She shared her wealth of experience and touched on various areas of this disorder that I had never considered as self-harm. It was a good learning experience without the highly emotional content. We had the privilege of seeing the stories of two of her clients which gave us insight into how understanding and empathy can build a bridge to a way of helping young people out of this cycle. The break out groups were a chance to share stories and experiences, although in our group there was little to no first hand experience. It was still well spent as we discussed. I have to mention Arlene who does all the tech stuff – she is amazing and makes sure we are all informed beforehand and during the seminar that breakout groups, screen sharing etc. all flow well. I highly recommend this course for anyone. In society today a greater general knowledge of psychological challenges is needed, so training in how to help young people who self harm is a must!
Excellent course – Emily is a fantastic teacher – really engaging and knowledgeable.
Emily guided us through some difficult content with skill and compassion. There were many insights and useful tools which will no doubt be invaluable to my practice.
An engaging and informative course. Appropriate for professionals and parents/carers to learn what may be underneath self harm. Really helpful to bring a dialogue with self-harmers to be able to understand and help them in a greater depth.
Packed from start to finish with useful information. Excellent knowledge and engaging presentation from Emily Gajewski, supported by Arlene who keeps that Zoom chat flowing with links. Highly recommended.
Excellent and informative course. It gave me a good overall understanding of self-harming, how to deal with it and how to best advice clients.
I enjoyed every minute – massively informative, loads of info, beautifully delivered and explained – the opportunity for group interaction in the breakout rooms and plenty of time for questions was all managed superbly. Well done everyone involved!
This course gave a thorough overview of the issue of self-harm with personal stories and examples from clients and therapists. Despite it being aimed predominately at parents, as a practitioner I found it a useful and engaging workshop and I am already thinking about how I can take what I have learned forward to my clinical work. I will certainly recommend it to the parents I work with who are looking for more information around supporting their child with self-harm.
Thank you for offering an on-line, interactive course about self harm and teenagers. There were some really useful takeaways I feel I can implement with my daughter, and I feel better informed about how I can really think through my gentle parenting to make sure I keep the dialogue open and empathetic with my daughter.
This was very helpful and informative with lots of links to additional resources and websites.
I thoroughly enjoyed the online course. It had a friendly atmosphere where participants could share comfortably. There was a good pace and opportunity for brain breaks.
I thought the course was great – helpful that we had the handouts before hand. Emily was great at delivering and I learnt a lot! Helpful to have a few 10 minute breaks to get a drink etc. – keeps me able to concentrate. Liked the fact that all the links were put into the chat box. Also enjoyed the interaction with others on the course when we went into the breakout room.
Although I am an experienced young person’s counsellor I found this course really helpful – the ideas presented were practical and will be very helpful with clients. The handouts were comprehensive and a valuable resource. It was interesting to have a mix of professionals and parents attending, with more time this could have been explored in more depth. Overall the course was value for money and I would recommend this to other professionals.
Very informative – I liked the fact there were videos and case studies.
The course was very informative – excellent content. I learnt a great deal and feel more confident in my ability to talk about self harm with the people I support.
As a parent of a child with a history of self-harming and my work as a TA I found this course very informative. I could relate to many things Emily was sharing and I will certainly be using the information given to help support my child. I strongly believe that in the future this course would be better run over a longer period and to hold courses aimed at parents and carers separately to health professionals. This is my personal opinion.
A really engaging and helpful course. I learnt lots – thank you!
Excellent
Very informative with a lot of practical advice and resources that I can use straight away with clients.
Emily is absolutely wonderful and always delivers her courses knowledgeably and with empathy. Another excellent course.
Very informative – excellent tutor. Also found the handouts very helpful and have used some of new learning with clients.