The hardest words: Exploring the dialogue of suicide in the counselling process — A discourse analysis

Abstract

Increasing suicide rates among specific groups of the population have led to the publication of suicide reduction targets and guidelines applicable to all mental health professionals, including counsellors. It is now widely expected that mental health workers possess skills and knowledge in the assessment of suicide risk. This research study used a discourse analysis approach to analyse 16 counselling transcripts generated from assessment interviews with suicidal ‘client actors’. Clients generally only referred to suicide by metaphors. Counsellors’ responses to suicidal clients were primarily reflective. There was little evidence of a suicide risk assessment being undertaken in the counselling discourse. Implications for suicidal clients, counsellors and the counselling profession are discussed and further areas for research highlighted.

High School Teachers' Experiences With Suicidal Students: A Descriptive Study

“…Research indicates that many mental health professionals (Reeves, Bowl, Wheeler, & Guthrie, 2004) and medical professionals (Earls, 1989) shy away from asking clients directly about suicide; even being able to ask about suicidal thoughts requires uncommon skill and comfort with the topic (Shea, 1999). It is encouraging that almost one third of teachers, many of whom never received training in suicide prevention, had taken it upon themselves to directly ask students about suicidal thoughts or behaviors.…”

Practical implications for the development of applied metaphor in adventure therapy

“…Studies that involved post-session analysis of metaphoric content by therapist and client indicated that the client and therapist often had different understandings of metaphor meaning (Angus & Rennie, 1988;Rasmussen & Angus, 1996). A poignant example of this misunderstanding is evident in a critical discourse analysis of single session transcripts in which Reeves, Bowl, Wheeler, and Guthrie (2004) demonstrated that few counsellors responded directly to clients' metaphoric responses about suicide with an assessment of severity or intent Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 12:13 11 October 2014…”

Moral perspectives on the prevention of suicide in mental health settings

“…Collins & Cutcliffe (2003) assert that most suicidal clients are seeking a therapeutic relationship that will bring them hope and reverse the trajectory towards death. This position demands that attempts should be made to restore hope through engagement, rather than confirm despair through non‐intervention (Reeves et al . 2004).…”