Konrad Michel

Dr. Michel, M.D. is Professor emeritus of Psychiatry, affiliated with the University of Bern, Switzerland. He devoted a major part of his research and clinical activities to suicide and suicide prevention. As a trained psychotherapist, his main interest early in his career focused on the therapeutic relationship with suicidal patients. In an extraordinary collaboration with Ladislav Valach, Ph.D, he developed a model of suicide as a person’s action with a personal background story, as opposed to the traditional medical model which understands suicide as a consequence of mental disorders. Dr. Michel was the organizer of the “Aeschi Conferences”, a highly acclaimed international forum for new developments in the therapy of suicidal patients, which led to the volume titled “Building a Therapeutic Alliance with the Suicidal Patient”, edited by K. Michel and D.A. Jobes. The brief and highly effective therapy program ASSIP (Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program) is today one of the most effective therapies for patients with a history of attempted suicide in use worldwide. With his new book “The Suicidal Person; A New Look at a Human Phenomenon” Dr. Michel takes his person-centered understanding of suicide further, by promoting a promising model which has the potential to overcome the prevalent medical model. The book includes practical advice for people at risk, as well as for relatives and health professionals.