Self Injury Support

Who we are

Self Injury Support is a national charity that offers confidential, non-directive and non-judgmental emotional support to women and girls of all ages who are affected by self injury. The support services are open from 7pm to 9.30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Our vision

That anyone who uses self-injury knows they are not alone;

that everyone understands that self-injury is a complex and important issue we should all care about;

and that together we tackle both the causes and stigma of self-injury.

Our mission

We focus on improving support and knowledge around self-injury

How We Do This

• offering safe spaces where we listen and never judge, and demonstrating the impact of this support;
• creating experience-led tools and information on topics clients tell us they want to know about;
• promoting better models of support through training health and social care workers of the future;
• working with researchers and policy makers to make sure what people tell us they want is put into practice

What We Do To Make This Happen

• We run a UK-wide multi-channel support service for women & girls affected by self-injury, trauma and abuse
• We develop up-to-date, reliable and free information and self help tools for anyone to use
• We run training and consultancy to share knowledge and expertise with a wide range of staff, especially in health, social care and education
• We partner with other organisations and researchers to find out directly from those with lived experience of self-injury find helpful in their lives 

Our values

These are the values that ensure we never lose sight of what we are trying to achieve:

Providing non-judgemental support

Self-injury is often experienced alongside feelings of shame or self-blame. Responses from others who do not understand self–injury can reinforce these feelings. We aim to offer and model acceptance which increases chance of people feeling more accepting towards themselves.

Offering a positive experience of reaching out for help

Some people contacting us may not have reached out for help in relation to self-injury before or may have had negative responses when looking for support. The issue is highly stigmatised and a person’s first experience of disclosing is very significant in how they subsequently seek support. 

Respecting an individual's relationship with self-injury and to avoid being prescriptive in our support

We recognise the role and function that self-injury can play in people’s lives at different times. We aim to foster feelings of autonomy and empowerment in the people we support. Our aim is to give people access to clear and objective information designed to help them make the right choices for them at different times in their lives. We do not tell people to stop using self-injury, as this is not our choice to make.