368: Helping Someone Who Has Suicidal Thoughts - With Dr. Stacey Freedenthal

<div>Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews an esteemed guest, Dr. Stacey Freedenthal on the important subject of how to support someone who shares with you that they're considering suicide.<br /> <br /> In this episode you'll hear Stacey normalizing the common experience of having suicidal thoughts and clarify what happens when people tell mental health professionals they're having suicidal thoughts. </div> <div><br /> Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, is recognized for her expertise in helping people who have suicidal thoughts. She authored the books Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for<br /> Professionals (Routledge; 2018) and Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do (New Harbinger Publications; scheduled to be published<br /> Jan. 2, 2023).<br /> <br /> Dr. Freedenthal created and maintains the website Speaking of Suicide, which has had more than six million views in ten years. She has authored or co-authored two dozen peer-<br /> reviewed articles and book chapters about suicidal intent, youth suicidality, and other topics related to suicide. <div><br /> Find Stacey's <a href="https://www.speakingofsuicide.com/" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">Speaking of Suicide website here</a></div> <div> </div> <div><a href="https://staceyfreedenthal.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Visit Stacey's website staceyfreedenthal.com here</a></div> <div> <p>Stacey shared the "Cats As Anti-Depressants" meme, which she found as a sticker available for purchase.</p> <p>She paraphrased this quote during our conversation and shared the exact words and source: From the Walker Percy novel, "The Moviegoer." “Suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I’m as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself – ah, then, I would.”</p> <p><a href= "https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/article/when-therapists-struggle-suicidality" target="_bl