Suicide Assessment and Intervention
Assess Suicidal Ideation and Effectively Intervene in Crisis Situations with Confidence, Composure and Sensitivity
- Speaker:
- Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD
- Duration:
- Full Day
- Language:
- Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR
- Product Code:
- LWC053755
- Brochure Code:
- PWZ95780
- Media Type:
- Live Webinar - Also available: Digital Seminar
Description
Losing a client to suicide is your worst nightmare. And there inevitably comes a time when the suicidal client is more than just an intangible dread. When an actual person, suffering and sitting in your office, reveals they are having suicidal thoughts. Many clinicians are left feeling unprepared, frightened, and unsure what to do next. The weight of keeping someone alive can steer you in the direction of avoidance. Desperate and alone, suicidal clients can find themselves passed from one therapist to the next. And that’s not care.
Don’t let fear push you away.
This seminar will transform how you view and work with suicidal clients and give you the clinical tools you need to save lives.
Full of thought-provoking lecture, engaging case studies, and guided instruction on a host of powerful clinical applications, this seminar will provide you with the tools you need to:
- Assess for suicidal risk and identify implicit and explicit expressions of suicidal thought.
- Formulate a game plan for crises when suicide is imminent.
- Intervene in suicidal despair with proactive approaches derived from the evidence-based efficacy of CBT and DBT.
- Effectively use targeted language with suicidal clients that will help you avoid stigma and successfully communicate your compassion.
- Provide innovative grief support resources that connect clients and clinicians with other survivors of suicide and suicide loss.
Leave this seminar feeling confident and capable to work with suicidal clients and guide them out of the darkness and back into the light!
Credit
Program Information
Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationshipsAll members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
NOTE: Each purchase includes CE credit for one individual (participants in full attendance will be able to print the certificate of completion after passing the online post-test (80% passing score) and completing the evaluation). Instructional methods will include PowerPoint, didactic lecture, Q&A, and others.
Continuing Education Information: Credits listed below are for full attendance at the live, interactive webinar only. This webinar is being broadcast live in real-time and must be attended live, in its entirety, in order to earn credit. You will be able to type questions to the speaker. The speaker will see the questions and address them during the presentation as time allows. Please note, your licensing board dictates whether web-based activities are an acceptable form of continuing education, as well as which credit types are acceptable for continuing education hours. Please refer to your licensing board's rules and regulations. If your profession is not listed, please contact your licensing board to determine your continuing education requirements and check for reciprocal approval. For other credit inquiries not specified below, please contact info@pesi.com or 800-844-8260 before the event.
Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your profession's standards.
For Planning Committee disclosures, please see the statement above. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
Earn up to 6.25 CE hours. Please see below, for more details, as credit amounts vary by jurisdiction and profession.
PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association to offer continuing education for counsellors and psychotherapists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This activity is approved for 6.0 credit hours.
PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This program is approved for 6.0 continuing education hours. Full credit statement at: www.pesi.com/cpa-statement
PESI, Inc., #1062, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: January 27, 2026 - January 27, 2029. Social workers completing this course receive 6.25 Clincial continuing education credits.
Course Level: Intermediate Format: Synchronous distance. Full attendance is required; no partial credits will be offered for partial attendance.
Canadian Social Workers: Canadian provinces may accept activities offered by providers approved by the ASWB ACE program for ongoing professional development.
This activity qualifies for 380 continuing education minutes as required by many national and local licensing boards and professional organizations. Save your activity advertisement and certificate of completion, and contact your own board or organization for specific requirements.
This course has been approved by PESI, Inc., as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #77553. PESI, Inc. is responsible for all aspects of their programming.
This course offers 6.0 continuing education contact hours in the Counseling Services skill group. Full attendance is required; no partial credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
PESI, Inc. is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Nurses in full attendance will earn 6.25 contact hours. Partial contact hours will be awarded for partial attendance.
Speaker
Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD Related seminars and products
Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, award-winning keynote speaker, and impact entrepreneur dedicated to transforming suicide prevention from risk management to meaningful healing. She is internationally recognized for integrating the stories, science, and strategy of suicide prevention to help clinicians, leaders, and organizations move beyond liability-driven care toward compassionate competence.
Dr. Spencer-Thomas is Co-Founder and President of United Suicide Survivors International and co-founder of Man Therapy®, an innovative men’s mental health initiative. She served as the founding Executive Secretary of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and has held national leadership roles with the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), including Executive Board Member and Secretary, as well as leadership positions within the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). She has served on Lived Experience Advisory Committees for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now 988), helping embed lived experience into national strategy.
A TEDx speaker and White House invitee, Dr. Spencer-Thomas has consulted and presented across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her most important credential, however, is her lived experience as a suicide loss survivor—a calling that drives her work to help clinicians not only prevent suicide but sustain a passion for living in the people they serve.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sally Spencer Thomas maintains a private practice and receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sally Spencer Thomas is the president of United Suicide Survivors International and is a member of the executive board for the American Association of Suicidology. She is co-chair of the Workplace Special Interest Group for the International Association of Suicide Prevention and is a member of the Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Additional Info
Program Information
Access Period for Live WebcastFor live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.
Webcast Schedule
Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.
Questions?
Visit our FAQ page at https://www.pesicanada.ca/faq or contact us at https://www.pesicanada.ca/contact-us.
Objectives
- Assess individuals at risk of suicide with a clinical approach that identifies both explicit and implicit expressions of suicidal thought.
- Determine key indicators of imminent suicide and develop a strategy for determining when and how to hospitalize clients.
- Formulate a CBT and DBT oriented case conceptualization that addresses how to effectively work with specific populations including veterans and the elderly.
- Employ a collaborative safety approach to help clients survive a suicidal crisis.
- Develop communication strategies that convey compassion and support and strengthen the therapeutic alliance.
- Design a multi-systemic approach that reduces access to lethal means and incorporates the suicidal person’s social connections into their safety plan.
Outline
Suicide: Who, When, How and Where
- Addiction recovery
- Trauma-informed care
- Populations with multiple risk factors
- Suicide attempt survivors – learning from their experience
- Upstream clinical practices: reaching people before the point of crisis
Elicit Key Information from Suicidal Clients: Assessment and Level of Risk
- Implicit and explicit expressions of suicidal thoughts
- Communicating caring: Language to impart compassion and avoid stigma
- Suicide risk assessment
- SAFE-T
- PATH WARM
- Ideation, plan, means, intent
- Level of risk
Formulate Treatment Plans that Help Clients Regulate Emotions and Make Them Feel Valued and Connected
- Collaborative safety planning (or “Why Suicide Contracting is Dead”)
- Proactive approaches to decrease the likelihood of suicidal despair
- Multi-system approaches – support systems
- Evidence-based treatments:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Cognitive restructuring strategies
- Emotional regulation exercises
- Behavioral Activation
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy
- How to organize a skills training group
- Tips for phone coaching
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Relapse prevention plans
- Documentation
- Reduce access to lethal means
- Working with specific populations: veterans, the elderly
Confidently Handle Crisis Situations
- Conduct a behavioral chain analysis
- Validating reasons for suicide
- Identify reasons for living
- Use distress tolerance and CBT skills to manage a crisis
- When and how to hospitalize
Suicide Grief Support and Innovative Suicide-Specific Care
- Implement Suicide Grief Support
- Understand the unique nature of suicide grief
- Peer-based support: Connect clients to other survivors of loss
- Other innovative suicide-specific care
- Collaborative online tools and applications
- Clinicians with lived experience
- Post-traumatic growth and suicide
Target Audience
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Counselors
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Case Managers
- Addiction Counselors
- Therapists
- Nurses
- Other Mental Health Professionals
- School-Based Counselors
- School-Based Psychologists
- School-Based Social Workers
- School Administrators
Reviews
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Overall: 5
Total Reviews: 13
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