A relational and neurobiological-informed approach
Working with someone experiencing suicidal thoughts can be complex. Practitioners may feel a responsibility to keep someone safe while also trying to understand the person, what they are experiencing and what they need from the conversation.
Suicidal experiences are not all the same.
For some people, suicidal thoughts may emerge during an acute period of distress. For others, they may recur at different points in their lives or remain part of their experience over months or years. Their intensity, meaning and significance may also change over time.
Working with Suicidal Experiences is a 14-week Level 5 Award designed to develop practitioners’ understanding of these different experiences and their confidence in having meaningful conversations with people who are suicidal.
Rather than focusing only on identifying risk or responding to crisis, the course explores what may sit behind suicidal thoughts, how they are experienced by the individual, and how practitioners can respond in ways that support understanding, connection and safety.
Developing practice
Across four modules, the programme brings together contemporary suicide research with relational, psychological and neurobiological perspectives.
You will explore:
- different suicidal experiences, including acute, recurring and persistent thoughts
- what may contribute to suicidal thinking and what may maintain it
- the meaning and function suicidal thoughts may have for an individual
- how overwhelming distress can affect thinking, emotion and connection
- how to have open conversations about suicide while remaining attentive to safety
- the importance of relationships, support networks and individual ways of coping
- how to recognise and explore changes in a person’s suicidal experience.
Course information
14 weeks | Online | One day per week
49 taught hours + 20 hours self-directed learning
Founding cohort: £725 + VAT
Payment plan available.
Download the course information for full details of the programme, modules, entry requirements and assessment.
Register your interest
If you would like to join the founding cohort or receive further information about Working with Suicidal Experiences, please get in touch.
