This commentary to Arcoverde, Amazonas, and de Lima builds off their advice to psychologists to attend to the varied and multiple meanings of self-harming conduct. Its focus is on how in the absence of the ability to symbolically communicate, self-harmers use their bodies to communicate the need to make meaning of their experiences (emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive). The physical usage of the body challenges the therapeutic field, providing at once avenues for novel meaning making, but also the potential to undermine these processes. Some thoughts are offered about the role of the therapist in this context.
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