Self-Harm therapists

About self-harm

If you are about to harm yourself or are having thoughts of suicide, please reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline now — call or text 988. It's available 24 hours a day across the U.S., free and confidential. If there's immediate physical danger, call 911. This page is informational and is not a substitute for crisis support.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) — cutting, burning, hitting, severe scratching, or other deliberate harm to one's own body without suicidal intent — is more common than is usually discussed, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Research suggests around 17-18% of adolescents and 13% of young adults have engaged in NSSI at some point. The behaviors usually serve a specific function: regulating overwhelming emotions, ending dissociation, expressing pain that doesn't have words, or punishing oneself. Most people who self-harm are not trying to die. The behavior and suicide are distinct, though they can co-occur.

Self-harm responds to specific therapy approaches. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has the strongest evidence — it was developed for people with chronic suicidal and self-harm behaviors and includes specific skills for the situations that trigger the impulse, alternatives that achieve the same regulation function without injury, and longer-arc work on the underlying patterns. Trauma-focused approaches matter when the self-harm is connected to trauma (often it is). For adolescents specifically, family-based approaches are often part of the treatment.

A few things that matter clinically: secrecy and shame around self-harm often intensify it; telling a therapist about it does not typically make it worse. Therapists trained to work with self-harm will not react with alarm or pressure you to stop immediately — that approach is counterproductive. They will work with you on the patterns, the function the behavior is serving, and gradually building alternatives that meet the same need.

If you are currently self-harming and want to stop, the standard guidance from organizations like the Self-injury Outreach and Support is: don't try to stop cold turkey through willpower alone — it usually doesn't work and increases shame when it fails. Reach out to a therapist trained in this work, ideally in DBT, who can help you build the alternatives that make stopping sustainable. Many of the therapists in this directory have that training.

For families and partners of someone who self-harms, the experience can be frightening. Several therapists here work with families navigating it.

If you're in immediate crisis, call or text 988. For ongoing therapy, browse the profiles below or submit the matching form.