A Video Series on Self Mutilation:

Self Injury

"We must understand that in the trauma survivor, self injury is functional. It always performs some deep, underlying function. Most generally, it’s an attempt to ward off worse harm."– David Calof

A client’s self mutilating behavior can be extremely challenging for the therapist. This video series discusses the range of traumatic causes of self mutilation, and the forms that it takes, as well as interventions that can provide more adaptive responses. Child abuse survivors describe their experiences of self mutilation, and their steps toward recovery. Released 1994.

Self Injury I: Genesis, Forms, and Functions
(#238, 46 min.)
Topics
How Self Injury Begins
Role of Childhood Abuse
Self Injury in Prisons and Among Men
Varieties of Self Injury
Motivations and Functions
Recapitulation of Early Trauma
Handling Rage and Other Affects
Other Motivations
Compulsion and Shame

Self Injury II: Clinical Issues and Interventions
(#239, 42 min.)
Topics
Therapist Response to Self Injury
Self Injury vs. Suicidality
Self Injury and Psychosis
Borderline Personality Disorder and Self Injury
Dissociation
Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Assessment and Intervention
Containers for Trauma
Healing

Purchase price: One VHS/DVD $150, both $250
Rental price: One VHS/DVD $50, both $85
TO ORDER phone or fax 800-345-5530

Also available: Understanding Self Injury (#240, 30 min.)
For a description of this condensed version for clients, see Videos for Survivors.

Customers who bought this video series also bought:
     The ACE Study
     Treating Complex PTSD
     Vicarious Traumatization

About the Presenters

David Calof is clinical consultant to the Adult Therapy Service and Psychological Trauma Center of the Seattle Mental Health Institute. He is a frequent presenter before such groups as the American Family Therapy Association, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, and the Eastern Regional Conference of the International Sociaty for the Study of Dissociation.

Dusty Miller, EdD, is Director of Clinical Mentoring, Department of Clinical Psychology at Antioch/New England Graduate School, as well as Clinical Supervisor of the Internship Program, Brattleboro Family Institute. She lectures frequently on women who self-harm, and also maintains a private practice. Dr. Miller is the author of Women Who Hurt Themselves, published by Basic Books in 1994.

John N. Briere, PhD is on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Souther California School of Medicine. Dr,. Briere speaks and consu.lts extensively on the topics of child abuse, victims of violence, and port-traumatic stress. He is the author of Child Abuse Trauma: Theory and Treatment of the Lasting Effects, Sage Publications, 1992.

The Trainer’s Guide

The 62-page trainer’s guide includes objectives, reproducible outlines for note-taking, review and discussion questions, a resource list, and book excerpts, described below.

Excerpts from David Calof’s book, Chronic Self Injury & Self Mutilation in Adult Survivors of Incest and Childhood Sexual Abuse: Etiology, Assessment and Intervention, include the following:

Nosology, Contextual and Cultural Considerations
Sources, Motivations and Functions
Countertransference, Iatrogenesis and Client Self-Injury
Clinical Issues
Guidelines for Intervention