Suicide Prevention Reimagined
Going Beyond “Clipboard Counseling” to Dignity-Centered Collaboration
- Speaker:
- Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 01 Minutes
- Language:
- Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR, handouts in EN
- Copyright:
-
Aug 17, 2026
- Product Code:
- POS150887
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
For decades, suicide prevention training has been shaped more by fear, liability management, and professional self-protection than by healing and human connection.
Clinicians are often taught to respond reflexively: assess risk, document carefully, secure a safety contract, force hospitalization, and medication.
And while these steps may reduce professional anxiety, research increasingly shows that many traditional practices lack strong evidence of effectiveness and may unintentionally alienate, shame, or intensify despair.
If we are serious about preventing suicide -- not just managing risk -- we must make a fundamental mindset shift.
In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas – award-winning speaker and suicide prevention expert – will help you examine the internal narratives, fears, and biases that shape traditional suicide prevention strategies so that you can reframe suicide care from self-protection to dignified support. You’ll get:
- Relational skills to shift from containment to connection when meeting with a client expressing suicidality
- Collaborative strategies for risk formulation that communicate respect for self-determination
- Powerful tools to center lived experience as a catalyst for empathy, cultural responsiveness, and stigma reduction
Credit
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 for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
Questions?
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Objectives
- Identify and examine fears, biases, and liability-driven assumptions that influence suicide-related clinical decision-making.
- Differentiate between risk-containment models and collaborative approaches to suicide care.
- Summarize how coercive practices may unintentionally undermine therapeutic alliance and engagement.
Outline
Compassionate Competence over “Clipboard Counselling” for Suicide Prevention
- Shift from “don’t get sued” to “don’t leave people alone in pain”
- Isolation in suicide risk work
- Fear, bias, and the self-protection reflex
- Identifying suicidal intensity with curiosity versus categorizing
- Clinician lived experience
- Interactive guided reflection
Side-by-Side Care for Clients with Suicidality
- How to treat clients as active partners in care with relational impact
- Use of humanizing versus stigmatizing language
- Collaborative meaning-making versus checklist interrogation
- MI and self-determination theory for suicide risk formulation
- How client experiences of coercion can damage alliance and engagement
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Counsellors
- Social Workers
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Psychotherapists
- Other Mental Health Professionals
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