Bodily Harm : The Breakthrough Healing Program for Self-Injurers

Rating:
Summary: excellent presentation of an often hid problem
Review: It was encouraging to read a book that dealt so honestly with a problem that, because of shame, is often hidden or ignored. Too many people in emotional pain are dealing with that pain in a physical way. Scars don't fade, however, but emotional pain will eventually lose some of its edge. I know this the hard way, and I am still fighting this very difficult battle. This book gave me hope that winning is possible, and I never realized that before. The book offered a lot of insight as to why this behavior develops, and offered suggestions for treatment. I do feel that the authors were prejudiced in saying that their treatment program was the only way to get better. I am finally getting excellent treatment in a program in White Plains, NY that very openly confronts and deals with self mutilation. The program is helping me more than any other treatment program has before. While the SAFE program seems hopeful, the most important thing in any program is the patient's willingness to work the program. You have to be ready to heal, and once you reach that terrifying point where you are ready to face your pain, you can make any program succeed.

Rating:
Summary: It's not a cure.
Review: Okay, I know that Wendy and Karen would both back me up in saying that this program is by no means a cure. And as for the expense, well public aide in Illinois will foot the entire bill and the people i've seen go through it don't have much money and are solely dependent upon a mixture of insurance, public aide, and social security. SAFE isn't a cure. It just lays down the tools you can use to get better, and no other program that I've been in has done that. None but SAFE have given me any help in controling the impulses, well outside of the lovely rubber band. Have they stabilized me, yes, but it didn't actually help me. The bodily harm book lays out tools that therapists can use in the outpatient realm to help patients. Impulse control logs, alternatives, not using the "fake injury" alternatives; all of these help. Bodily Harm even says that they believe that most self-injurers can recover in an outpatient setting. And PTSD can have a lot to do with self-injury, but I know that I don't have it and I self-injured for 8 years. Okay, this has turned into a huge defense thing and not a review- but still. I will forever love and charish what SAFE gave me, because it gave me back myself- nothing more or less. And, inside the bodily harm book they do have what the success rate is, if you're willing to look for it. I believe it's like 3/4ths, but I may be wrong. If any therapist really wants to know how they can help self-injurers I advise you to call up the SAFE program and ask if you can observe for a week... and this will be the end of my rave and rant.

Rating:
Summary: It's not a cure.
Review: Okay, I know that Wendy and Karen would both back me up in saying that this program is by no means a cure. And as for the expense, well public aide in Illinois will foot the entire bill and the people i've seen go through it don't have much money and are solely dependent upon a mixture of insurance, public aide, and social security. SAFE isn't a cure. It just lays down the tools you can use to get better, and no other program that I've been in has done that. None but SAFE have given me any help in controling the impulses, well outside of the lovely rubber band. Have they stabilized me, yes, but it didn't actually help me. The bodily harm book lays out tools that therapists can use in the outpatient realm to help patients. Impulse control logs, alternatives, not using the "fake injury" alternatives; all of these help. Bodily Harm even says that they believe that most self-injurers can recover in an outpatient setting. And PTSD can have a lot to do with self-injury, but I know that I don't have it and I self-injured for 8 years. Okay, this has turned into a huge defense thing and not a review- but still. I will forever love and charish what SAFE gave me, because it gave me back myself- nothing more or less. And, inside the bodily harm book they do have what the success rate is, if you're willing to look for it. I believe it's like 3/4ths, but I may be wrong. If any therapist really wants to know how they can help self-injurers I advise you to call up the SAFE program and ask if you can observe for a week... and this will be the end of my rave and rant.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD HELP
Review: This is a very good self help book, just start with part two becasue part one is just all information. People who didn't like this book probably didn't really have the dirve to stop cutting anyway. You have to want to change, and it says that a million times. Yes, of course they promote their own program, but who wouldn't. It provides a ton of useful tools to quit self injuring. It even provieds sample impulse control logs and ways to interview a potential therapist. The only thing I dissagree with is that they do not consider SI to be an addiction, and I think that it is. Either way, the book is amazing.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD HELP
Review: This is a very good self help book, just start with part two becasue part one is just all information. People who didn't like this book probably didn't really have the dirve to stop cutting anyway. You have to want to change, and it says that a million times. Yes, of course they promote their own program, but who wouldn't. It provides a ton of useful tools to quit self injuring. It even provieds sample impulse control logs and ways to interview a potential therapist. The only thing I dissagree with is that they do not consider SI to be an addiction, and I think that it is. Either way, the book is amazing.