Cutting Down: An Evidence-based CBT Workbook for Treating Young People Who Self-harm

Cutting Down provides a practical and accessible treatment programme based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) principles for young people who self-harm.

This fully revised and updated second edition includes new techniques from ‘third’ wave CBT, Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). This enriches the material and brings the concepts up to date. Another key addition to this new edition is the inclusion of strategies for young people who engage in suicidal behaviour. The manual is evidence based and focuses on a flexible and formulation driven model to direct treatment in around 15 sessions for young people and six sessions for parents and caregivers. It provides a clear structure for each session and an easy-to-follow outline on how the therapist should deliver each session. The content of each session is supported by handouts and worksheets which can be used within sessions or as homework between sessions.

Enhanced with online resources, the workbook will be useful for all professionals working with young people who self-harm across a wide range of settings from schools, primary care and voluntary sector, to community mental health services and inpatient units.

Dr Lucy Taylor is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working in independent practice in Surrey. She has worked over 20 years in the NHS, including jointly heading up the National & Specialist Child and Adolescent Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Service, Maudsley Hospital.

Dr Mima Simic is Consultant Child Adolescent Psychiatrist leading the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorder. She was Consultant for the Community Adolescent Mental Health Team and National & Specialist Child and Adolescent Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Service, Maudsley Hospital for nearly a decade. She has researched treatments for self-harm in which she teaches and trains mental health professionals.

Ulrike Schmidt is Professor of Eating Disorders at King’s College London and a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital. One key focus of her research is on developing brief scalable psychological treatments of value to the NHS, for people with eating disorders and other common mental health problems, including self-harm.