Subtle scars disappearing up a shirt sleeve, unexplained bruises, burn marks. As many as one out of every four young people engage in non-suicidal self-injury, defined as the deliberate destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent. Parents who uncover this alarming behavior are gripped by uncertainty and flooded with questions--why is my child doing this? Is this a suicide attempt? What did I do wrong? What can I do to stop it? And yet basic educational resources for parents with self-injuring children are sorely lacking. Healing Self-Injury provides desperately-needed guidance to parents and others who love a young person struggling with self-injury. First and foremost, adolescent psychologists Janis Whitlock and Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson believe that parents must appreciate how important their role is in their child's recovery; there is a lot that parents can do to support their self-injuring children. This book offers strategies for identifying and alleviating sources of distress in children's lives, improving family communication (particularly around emotions), and seeking professional help. Importantly, it also provides compassionate advice to parents with personal challenges of their own, explaining how these can impact the entire family. The book will help parents partner with their children to identify, build, and use skills that will assist them in recovering from self-injury. Vivid anecdotes drawn from the authors' extensive in-depth interviews with real families in recovery from self-injury put a human face on what for many families is a distressing and often isolating experience. Healing Self-Injury is a must-have for parents who want to assist in their child's recovery, as well as for anyone who lives with, works with, or cares about self-injuring youth and their families.

Janis Whitlock, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University, and is the founder and director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery. Dedicated to linking cutting edge science with on-the-ground efforts to support and enhance the lives of youth and their families, her research focuses on adolescent and young adult social and emotional health and wellbeing, sexual violence prevention, and the role of social media in health and development. She is best known for her work on non-suicidal self-injury. In addition to conducting research in these areas, she is dedicated to making research accessible and useful to those best positioned to make a difference in the lives of youth, such as parents and youth-serving professionals. Elizabeth E. Lloyd-Richardson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialized training in adolescent health risk behaviors. She began conducting research on and interviewing teens who self-injure nearly two decades ago, and has extensive experience in developing and running research programs that aim to promote healthful behaviors in adolescents and young adults. She has authored over 60 papers and book chapters in the areas of non-suicidal self-injury, weight management, and substance use and abuse.

Preface: Why you and why us? Introduction. Part 1: NSSI Background and Basics Chapter 1. The Basics of Self-Injury Chapter 2. The family experience of self-injury Chapter 3. The Context of Self-Injury: Where did it come from? Chapter 4. Where it starts and why it works Part 2: Recovery, treatment, and growth Chapter 5. Recovering from self-injury Chapter 6. An Introduction to Therapy: Talking with your child about therapy and finding the right therapist Chapter 7. Therapy for self-injury Chapter 8. Beyond surviving: From Disorder to Growth & Discovery Part 3: Parents as partners: Skills and tools for helping yourself and your child Chapter 9. I have feelings too! Understanding mindfulness and the role of our own automatic thoughts and reactions Chapter 10. Becoming a Mindful Parent: Strategies and skills for parenting a child that self-injures Part 4: Practical Matters Chapter 11. Positive communications during challenging times: Dealing with authority issues, power struggles, and staying calm when your child is not Chapter 12. Establishing Guidelines and Expectations for Managing Self-Injury Behaviors Chapter 13. Collaborations critical for recovery