Expanding Comfort in Discomfort: Navigating Suicidality, Safety Planning, and Being present in the Hardest Moments

Description

A webinar about suicidality in trauma treatment.

The word suicide can evoke a lot of emotions – fear, anxiety, uncertainty, pain, hopelessness, loss, confusion, discomfort, sadness, devastation, familiarity.

While there are various levels of training and awareness around suicide, as trauma treatment professionals and as humans, we may encounter suicidality regardless of the area we work in, the people we are in contact with, or even our own experiences.

It can be uncomfortable and overwhelming to know what to do, how to be present, and even how to navigate our own boundaries and needs when navigating suicidality.

 The webinar will be an hour long replay, and will focus on: 

• How to engage in safety planning, identifying resources, and next steps that expand what the individual is able to do, rather than feeling entirely hopeless. 
• How to hold space for the reality of much larger systems and structures that create hopelessness. 
• How to identify what is coming up for you in these processes to be able to stay present with everything happening, and to better understand your own needs and boundaries.

Even if you never intend to work with someone experiencing suicidality or have anyone in your life struggling with it, it can happen. The more you know, the more you can do.

About the Trainer

Sarah Emertiz, LMSW experience includes 4 years of working with Veterans navigating suicidality at the intersections of trauma, life stressors, substance use, and neurodivergence. 

Before that, she worked with adult outpatient therapy at a large hospital system supporting individuals recently discharged from inpatient psychiatry and/or a psychiatric emergency room following a mental health crisis. 

Prior to that, she worked on inpatient psychiatry units for children and adolescents. She has done extensive training and direct work with safety planning, navigating a suicidal crisis, exploring and holding space for chronic suicidality and more acute suicidal crises.

From personal and professional experiences, she approaches this work with compassion, empathy, and curiosity. Part of what drives her as a therapist is creating a space for people to be able to exist fully in the complexity of their experience; and having resources to navigate a world that can be endlessly challenging.