Combining Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), behavioural chain analysis and parts mapping for those experiencing crisis or suicidal ideation.

Nightmares aren’t just distressing dreams they can be a critical warning sign. Frequent, distressing nightmares are a strong, independent risk factor for suicidal thoughts.

Explores how sleep disruption, trauma themes, and helplessness in dreams all heighten suicide risk and why clinicians must assess and treat nightmares directly. With insights from EMDR, IFS, and trauma-informed care, we offer hope and pathways to healing.

Suicidal thoughts often emerge from a complex web of inner conflict, emotional pain, and disconnection. Thomas Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide offers a powerful framework: the belief that one is a burden and does not belong, paired with the acquired ability to enact self-harm, can culminate in crisis. This article explores how Joiner’s theory and IFS therapy intersect, offering insight, safety, and hope for those navigating suicidal ideation.

Anger is often misunderstood in the context of suicide. While sadness and hopelessness are widely recognised warning signs, it is internalised anger—particularly when suppressed or turned inward—that can quietly escalate risk. Studies have shown that individuals who routinely inhibit or ruminate on anger are significantly more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours. When a person is unable to direct anger toward its rightful source, it may be redirected toward the self. In these cases, the part carrying the rage may view death not as a desire to die, but as a desperate attempt to end intolerable emotional chaos.

Learn how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy supports therapists working with suicidal clients. This compassionate guide explores the U-turn, a core IFS practice for self-reflection and presence, helping clinicians respond to suicide risk with clarity, connection, and care.

What if safety planning didn’t silence the suicidal parts, but invited them into conversation? Explore how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy offers a compassionate alternative to no suicide contracts, helping clients build internal agreements, engage protectors, and listen to the parts that are hurting. A new way forward: curious, connected, and grounded in hope.

When parts of us are in pain, they often speak through extremes. In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, suicidal thoughts are not signs of disorder. They are signals from protectors trying to shield us from what feels unbearable.

Integrating suicidology and lived clinical experience, it invites clinicians to move beyond labels and listen deeply to the parts that want to die, the parts that want to live, and the Self that can hold them both.