Jason Mihalko on "inviting suicide into the room"

I am linking to the first of a series of posts by a clinician who seems to know that "there is no Dark Side, there is only fear of the dark":

Patient Suicide: Part One--The Phone Call

Jason Mihalko 

I thank Jason Mihalko for his honesty, and I'm quoting a bit from the end of Part Eight: 

Suicide no longer frightens me as a clinician. 

I hope it doesn't happen, and yet I don't fear it. 

There are days when I feel a little hysterical at the thought of going through this all over again. Those feelings don't last too long. I hope I'm always just a little hysterical at the thought of someone dying. 

Mostly, I welcome suicide into my office. Every day it becomes a little easier to talk about. 

I wish she didn't have to die, and yet in her death, she made suicide something that is mentionable for me--something really mentionable. Rather than frightening and silencing my patients with threats of hospitalizations and retribution, I've become more skillful and inviting suicide into the room. It's become a thing that can be spoken. A thing that can be known. A thing that is mentionable and therefore more manageable.

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.” -- Fred Rogers

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And here is another link that Jason Evan Mihalko @jaypsyd  introduces on Twitter like this:

Psychotherapy can rapidly become an oppressive force that perpetrates violence rather than forwarding humanity.

 Saturday, February 1, 2014

 Dear Young Therapist: Don't Call People Names



Which goes well with my post on labelling as the most destructive force in the universe:

http://freudfri.blogspot.no/2013/08/the-most-destructive-force.html