1. Working with individuals who self-harm SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network

2. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support Aims of session: Explore staff’s experience of working with clients who self-harm Identify forms of staff support Identify structures that support the provision of therapeutic work

3. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support Discuss in small groups: What thoughts and feelings do you have when working with someone who self- harms? What happens to these thoughts and feelings?

4. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support The clinician working with someone who self-harms is “often left feeling a combination of helpless, guilty, furious, betrayed, disgusted and sad” Favazza, 1989

5. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support The relationship “may be driven by the patients’ and staff’s wishes to deny the feelings of pain, anxiety and despair about the level of pathology and disurbance” Evans, 1998

6. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support “We repeat patterns, in our minds, our bodies and in relationships.” HOTUSH

7. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support What supports us in doing this work? Supervision: individual, group clinical, informal Protocols and clear boundaries A consistent, multi-disciplinary approach Risk assessment

8. SCOTTISH Personality Disorder Network Staff Support What supports us in doing this work? Being clear of the primary task and being supported with this by the organisation. Awareness of team dynamics and safe space to discuss these