Self-Injury Recovery: A Person-Centered Approach, with Drs. Stephen Lewis & Penny Hasking

The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

In this episode, ISSS Past Presidents Dr. Stephen Lewis from the University of Guelph in Canada, and Dr. Penelope Hasking from Curtin University in Australia talk about a new way of understanding self-injury and self-harm, with a special focus on recovery. In their person-centered approach, they emphasize the perspective of lived experience, move away from a "why don't you just stop" mentality, normalize ongoing self-injury thoughts and urges, and discuss strengths, scarring, and disclosures.

Follow Drs. Lewis and Hasking on Twitter at @SPLewisPhD and @PennyHasking. Keep up with Dr. Lewis' non-profit outreach organization Self-Injury Outreach & Support at @sioutreach, and follow Dr. Hasking's research in the Emotional Health and Self-Injury Research Group at @NSSI_RG.

Below are links to their book and a couple of their articles referenced in this episode:

1. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. A. (2023). Understanding self-injury: A person-centered approach. Oxford University Press.
2. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. A. (2021). Understanding self-injury: A person-centered approach. Psychiatric Services, 72(6), 721-723.
3. Lewis, S. P., & Hasking, P. (2019). Putting the “self” in self-injury research: Inclusion of people with lived experience in the research process. Psychiatric Services, 70(11), 1058-1060.

To read more about person-first language and identity-first language when referencing autism, click here and also visit https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36237135/. To read about language used to discuss race and ethnicity, click here.

Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter (@ITripleS).

The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated #5 by Feedspot in their "Best 20 Clinical Psychology Podcasts" and by Welp Magazine in their "20 Best Injury Podcasts."