Healing Self-Injury: A Compassionate Guide for Parents and Other Loved Ones

Parents who discover a teen's self-injurious behavior are gripped by uncertainty and flooded with questions - Why is my child doing this? Is this a suicide attempt? What did I do wrong? What can I do to stop it? And yet basic educational resources for parents with self-injuring children are sorely lacking. Healing Self-Injury provides desperately-needed guidance to parents and others who love a young person struggling with self-injury.

Janis Whitlock, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University, and is the founder and director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery. Dedicated to linking cutting edge science with on-the-ground efforts to support and enhance the lives of youth and their families, her research focuses on adolescent and young adult social and emotional health and wellbeing, sexual violence prevention, and the role of social media in health and development. She is best known for her work on non-suicidal self-injury. In addition to conducting research in these areas, she is dedicated to making research accessible and useful to those best positioned to make a difference in the lives of youth, such as parents and youth-serving professionals.

Elizabeth E. Lloyd-Richardson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialized training in adolescent health risk behaviors. She began conducting research on and interviewing teens who self-injure nearly two decades ago, and has extensive experience in developing and running research programs that aim to promote healthful behaviors in adolescents and young adults. She has authored over 60 papers and book chapters in the areas of non-suicidal self-injury, weight management, and substance use and abuse.