Overcoming Self-harm
How to reduce and prevent self-harming behaviours
With the right help and support most people who self-harm can, and do, fully recover over time – this inspiring course shows you how…
Course Factfile
Self-harm Training
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Length: 1 day (9.30am - 4.00pm)
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Tutors: Emily Gajewski, Jo Baker
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CPD Certificate: 6 hours
- Price: £198 per person
Price includes lunch, refreshments and course notes
£198.00
Book your place
Select a location & date
A careful and well thought out approach to a very difficult topic...
Daniel Cooper
NEXT DATE: Join self-harm expert Emily Gajewski on Thursday 6th March 2025 in Bristol to learn from her extensive knowledge and experience in helping people move on from self-harm – book online now or call our friendly team on 01323 811690. More dates and venues.
Self-harming and self-injury behaviours are increasing at an alarming rate – particularly among children and young people. It’s common to feel powerless when faced with such distressing behaviour, but with the essential information and skills you will learn on this self-harm course, you needn’t feel that way again.
Why take this course
Emily Gajewski has decades of hands-on experience helping children and adults successfully overcome or significantly reduce their self-harming behaviour. Her insightful training day demystifies the self-harming cycle, clarifies its causes and shows why we should not give up on anyone, even in the most apparently hopeless situations.
You will gain a wealth of new information, proven techniques and useful tips which combined will ensure you give sufferers the best chance of recovering their mental health and moving on in their lives – you will also hear from people who have been able to completely stop self-harming (or dramatically reduced it) and are now living fulfilled lives as a result of this approach.
If you would like to make sense of all the fragments of information you have about self-harming and pull them all together into a cohesive and effective treatment strategy, this workshop is for you.
Immensely helpful - Emily speaks from extensive practical experience of helping people who self-harm...
Health Practitioner
What will you learn
- A greater understanding of self-injury and why it occurs
- Warning signs that indicate someone may be self-harming
- What to do when someone discloses their self-harming behaviour to you
- The essential Dos and Don’ts for teams and individuals working with people who self-harm
- The latest guidelines around working with self-harm, including positive risk management and harm minimisation
- The importance of differentiating between self-harming and a suicide attempt – and how to treat them both
- The self-harm continuum – what tips us into self-harming behaviours
- What to do if someone is threatening to self-harm
- The common myths and stereotypes surrounding self-injury
- Powerful techniques that will transform your effectiveness and a ‘tried-and-tested’ framework for improving wellbeing, drawn from profound knowledge about what people need to avoid mental and emotional distress and increase wellbeing
- How chemical changes in the brain from self-harming behaviours can bring temporary relief from difficult emotions
- Why there is often an addictive element to self-injury (insights from neuroscience)
- How to approach the subject of self-injury with someone
- A cohesive and effective treatment strategy for treating self-injury and breaking the destructive cycle of behaviour
- Important skills needed for working with people who self-harm – and the opportunity to practise some of the them
- Enlightening filmed interviews and case histories which show how it is possible to help people, even in a very desperate situation, to live fulfilling lives again
- The chance to work with and ask questions of a highly experienced tutor who has extensive hands-on experience of helping people successfully overcome self-harming
- Ways to help people build resilience to future stressful circumstances
- Tips on finding the most helpful coping strategies
- How to help people create an alternative ‘safe place’ for themselves
- Practical ways to reduce your own anxiety when working in this area
- How to create an effective self-management plan and increase the individual’s engagement with it
- Important new information that will help you prevent self-harm
- New confidence when making interventions with people who once seemed unreachable
Good to know
Guided imagery and visualisation are key skills to have for implementing the strategies taught on this workshop.
The information and skills you will learn on Brief therapy for stopping addictions workshop can also be useful for working with people who self-harm.
Invaluable - it was like lifting a veil on the reasons for self-harm
Teacher
Please note – there is also an online version of this course which covers the same information but not the practical exercises. (Because it lacks the practical exercises, the online course doesn’t count towards Part 1 of the HG Diploma.)
Course Programme
The ‘Overcoming Self-harm’ course starts at 9.30am and runs until 4.00pm.
Who is this course suitable for?
- Health and welfare professionals, including: psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, school counsellors, student wellbeing officers, doctors, nurses, OTs, social workers, health visitors, youth workers, outreach and support workers
- Anyone who has a friend or relative who is self-harming
- Anyone who works with vulnerable men and women in the voluntary sector.
This course covers 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 (to 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
Register your interest – next date
If you can’t make any of these course dates, please complete the form below and we’ll email you when another date becomes available.
Tell others about this course
The whole course was invaluable. It was well organised and the information presented was of great help and interest.
Support Worker
A really well paced day with lots of relevant practical information and advice. I loved the films - they really helped me to get an overview of the subject and clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the approach – what amazing women. I’m very grateful to them.
GP
The whole day was very interesting with lots of material and time to try out ideas – gave me confidence I didn’t have before.
Project worker
From the introduction, and then throughout the day, the attention placed on self-harm as a spectrum of behaviours and a nuclear of ‘other’ manifest disorders, especially illuminated therapeutic thinking methods. The HG approach then stands out: identifying unmet needs and use of innate resources to help a patient curb self-harm, in their own world, language, and way – individual centred.
Very detailed, insightful and informative.
The course was very empowering, informative and insightful. I love the way Emily delivered the material. It gave me so much insightful things to digest and process.
Excellent course on self-harm – why it happens and how you can help people to overcome it and get on with their lives. Very helpful.
Fantastic. Emotionally draining, but so beneficial.
Very well taught by Emily. Very insightful on a difficult subject.
Very insightful, myth busting workshop
A very detailed and informative course. Lots of practical aspects which we can take away and use in our own practice. Well presented and enjoyable.
The course was insightful and gave me a good knowledge base for supporting clients who self harm.
Really sensitively approached, a topic which can be difficult to cope with. Enjoyed the real case studies and seeing real life examples.
This was a completely new topic and at first I wondered if I could relate, but through exploration and understanding I feel so much more confident now.
Fantastic course with great structure and information given. A subject that is a difficult to listen to was presented with compassion and calmness.
Very helpful and insightful. Emily’s compassionate approach to self-harm was really amazing and inspiring to see.
Emily is such a brilliant trainer of this topic, and it goes so well with the addictions workshop. I wondered before I arrived if this topic might feel quite ‘heavy’ and challenging, but once again the Human Givens approach makes sense of this subject as the solution. I now feel confident in how to help someone if they came to be for help with self harm.
The course was delivered in such a competent manner with a really good balance of teaching and practical activities. I personally got so much out of today’s course. An excellent day! Thank you so much Emily.
Excellent tutor – she explained things very clearly and was approachable. I have a much clearer understanding of self-harm theory. The course provided useful information and techniques for practice, particularly around harm-minimisation.
Extremely helpful in my role of managing supported accommodation for adults with a mental health diagnosis. Very well delivered and informative.
Really enjoyed it. Good size group and excellent venue. Great content and not too intense.
Thoroughly enjoyed the course – lots of very relevant information which I will be able to take into my practice.
Such important concepts that aren’t the way that you might imagine them to be. Really good information and excellent opportunities to discuss and consolidate understandings. Really clear approach.
A careful and well thought out approach to a very difficult topic. I feel a much greater appreciation for the range of useful interventions that can be used to help when helping someone struggling with these issues.
Emily is so fantastic. Her teaching style is very effective and you can really tell she cares about the issues and people. I feel very enriched having been taught by her and hope that I will come across Emily again. I hope she enjoyed teaching us as much as we enjoyed being taught by her.
Emily is exceptional and has everything an outstanding teacher needs. My best Human Givens experience yet.
Fabulous course today. I know so much more about self-harm that I did this morning and I feel I’ve gained an understanding of why, and a knowledge of what to do and what not to do. Thank you.
Brilliant and so educational. Emily is a fantastic teacher – and I loved all the examples.
Superb, compassionate and humanising.
Amazing! Insightful and full of knowledge and compassion.
Very informative! Working in pairs to practice is a very useful resource. Emily’s shared experiences were very helpful.
Up to date, evidence-based, thorough course on self-harm using the HG methodology. Excellent.
A very thought-provoking session – very enriching and allows me to stretch my own skills.
Brilliant, insightful, on-the-point material to take to your therapy room. A complex subject turned into concrete knowledge.
Another thorough and fascinating course. Emily is so knowledgeable and adds real life experience which helps embed the concepts.
Very informative – resolved any concerns I had about methods of interventions with young people who self-harm
The whole course was invaluable. It was well organised and the information presented was of great help and interest, thank you.
Excellent!
This is a very intense course and can be quite distressing at times, but knowing how we can help people from feeling low enough to self-harm and given them back control of their lives is very reassuring.
Inspired and empowered to work with clients who self-harm.
I found it very informative, especially as the tutor, Emily, brought a real wealth of experience.
Brilliant course. Opened my eyes to how to deal with and treat self-harm.
A really useful day. This subject is so difficult for so many people and being more confident to talk about it is essential. I now have the confidence.
So useful. I’ve really found the course very interesting. I hope I will be able to use some of these techniques in future.
The course was a welcome fuel stop from working in a CMHT. I learnt skills (listening) and the science informing the theories, eg about the fulfilment expectation theory.
Self harm is one of society’s taboos which means it’s not perhaps as well understood as it could be. Emily’s style is very inclusive and the whole class was fully engaged.
Lots of great information. Learned a lot of new information. Presented really well – thank you Emily.
Fantastic course dealing with a difficult subject. Learning so much and so pleased that I signed up to Human Givens
Excellent, as usual.
So useful to think about needs not being met and self-harm behaviour. Also the addictive nature and how it meets needs. Great course!
This knowledge today has tied up some loose ends for me. I have practiced NLP/EFT and body therapies for 30 years. I would like to explore more days to increase my knowledge and tool box! Thank you Emily.
I only did the one day course, but it has definitely whetted my appetite for further training with HG
Excellent – lots of insights, new information very well explained and easy to follow
Well-structured learning to take in lots of information. Superb tutor
I really enjoyed the course today. For me personally there was lots of new information, and from a very knowledgeable and eloquent trainer. Thank you.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the self-harm course today – it has been a great addition to my HG journey/learning. In my view, it’s a ‘must-do’ cause for all HG therapists.
So insightful and wonderful to have had such a wealth of knowledge from Emily. I liked the case studies of the ladies used.
Another excellent course which was so interesting and I feel I gained a new understanding of self harm and how to deal with clients who may experience this. This should be taught to all frontline workers as it’s so valuable.
An exceptional course combining real world experience with practical, measurable techniques & results – the best mental health course I have ever attended in 30 years.
Such a useful course, I felt it was packed full of good information and tips. Really worthwhile.
This opened my eyes on the best approach when supporting a person who is self harming
Excellent! Emily is so clear and concise. I appreciate the way she approaches the subject, sharing knowledge so naturally communicating with stories.
Highly informative, well presented by a knowledgeable experience lecture – good venue with excellent food!
Very informative with clear explanations and examples. Today was really well taught and helpful.
So grateful for this – really helpful. Way above my expectations.
One of the best courses I have done so far. Emily is an amazing tutor and I found today fascinating and extremely valuable.
Could have done another day I loved it so much!
A really helpful, caring approach – today has clarified so much for me and I can now see a sensible way forward.
All of the content was really useful. The film was an excellent way of bringing the ideas to life. I think that the course has put self-harm into context for me and reduced my anxiety about how to work with someone who self-harms.
Very relevant to my workplace and profession.
Excellent work-based knowledge of trainer – helpful that real-life experiences were used as examples.
I understand so much more about self-harm reasons and treatment now. Films were a very powerful experience.
I liked the practical and well structured techniques for working with self-harmers. I come across this regularly in my job. The HG approach and reframing of self-harm gives me a framework for talking differently about this issue with school professionals. An approach I can really use.
Emily’s introduction describing how she came into this field immediately engaged me with the importance of the topic and the structure of the day – very helpful start.
Thank you so much for a really informative and thought-provoking day. So well put together.
Lovely teaching, very real and human.
Good quality information well presented. Excellent content and presenter.
Excellent course – a mix of information and methods: film, discussion and activity.
Emily very elegantly presented HG principles in ways that encouraged new thoughts and ideas and offered a wide range of very useful and accessible, practical techniques. Her experience in working in this field was very apparent. An excellent example of ‘creating an effective environment for learning’ that was useful and enjoyable. A really worthwhile investment of time – CPD of the highest quality.
Yet again your training is highly relevant and current. This will be passed on to the staff I work with to inform/improve our work with young people.
Fantastic day with excellent information to help me increase my understanding and empathy. Films particularly powerful.
I definitely feel more confident now in working with people who self-harm. I also think I need to look at our policies in the organisation I work for in the light of this.
The whole day has been an invaluable experience and helped me to re-evaluate what I have termed ‘self-harm’. It has alerted me to behaviours in the children I work with which I might otherwise have overlooked.