Psychotherapy and youth suicide prevention: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of specialist clinicians' experiences

Abstract

The study explored psychologists' experiences in delivering short‐term psychotherapy for suicidal adolescents and sought to clarify how these experiences fit with empirically supported interventions and the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 psychologists' who provided short‐term psychotherapy in a suicide prevention programme for youth (12‐ to 25‐year‐olds). Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: (i) understand the experience and context of the suicidality and the importance of a formulation‐based approach to engagement and individualized treatment planning; (ii) involve broad support systems, and in particular families, to help the young person reduce feelings of burdensomeness and increase safety, connectedness and belonging; and (iii) improve affect regulation and reflective functioning, important not only for the young person but also for the support system to maximize the positive impact of supports via emotional coregulation and effective problem‐solving. Interventions and approaches as well as the potential underlying processes of change being targeted are discussed in light of these findings. As an example, the development of a suicide safety plan was an intervention that traversed these themes. When used as a process tool, it helped foster a collaborative, formulation, dimensional and biopsychosocial approach to treat psychopathology and suicidality and extended beyond the therapist–client dyad. Moreover, treatment needs to be extended beyond the therapist–client dyad to allow therapists to facilitate a systemic treatment response, as this was seen as a major component of interventions for suicidal youth.

The multifaceted role of emotion regulation in suicidality: Systematic reviews and meta-analytic evidence.

“…Hopelessness Scale) documented the acceptability and feasibility of an intervention based on problem solving to prevent suicide. Two contributions (Bravo-Andrade et al, 2020;Janackovski et al, 2021) Acceptance. In addition to the abovementioned study (Gooding et al, 2019), another contribution documented the role of acceptance in suicidality.…”

Statewide Assessment of North Carolina Nurse Practitioners' Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Suicide Awareness and Prevention: Protocol for a Statewide Mixed Methods Study

“…We will use interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). IPA makes sense of the participant's experiences by seeking to understand the cognitive, affective, linguistic, and physical being while maintaining the researcher as an integral part of the sense-making process [34][35][36][37][38]. This methodology is best used in studies where the objective is to explore the meaning behind the experiences of participants.…”

“…This methodology is best used in studies where the objective is to explore the meaning behind the experiences of participants. IPA is an especially fitting research approach when the researcher intends on asking complex, broad, and open-ended questions [34][35][36][37][38], as is the case in this research proposal. In keeping with the open-ended nature of qualitative research, this method allows the researcher to explore the research question in a flexible nonprescriptive manner, thus facilitating a more thorough exploration [34][35][36][37][38].…”

Upregulation of proBDNF/p75NTR signaling in immune cells and its correlation with inflammatory markers in patients with major depression

“…The World Health Organization suggests that the disease ranks as the second cause of burden due to loss of work capacity and mortality, and will rank first by 2030 2 . The suicide rate of depression patients is 36 folds that of the general population, causing serious harm to patients, families, and society 3 . Thus, MDD is still one of the major diseases that needs to be focused on prevention and further research.…”