To mark World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September, Tony’s Place hosted Dr Chris Bowden. Chris is well-regarded within the suicide prevention and postvention spaces.

This webinar has now been held.

A recording will be available on this page soon.

Reimagining and Reframing Narratives of Suicide and Suicide Prevention, with Dr Chris Bowden

Suicide prevention requires creating transformative spaces for the analysis and creation of alternative futures. This includes critically examining our everyday language and thinking, the social and dominant narratives around suicide and the deep underlying beliefs and myths about suicide. The language and narratives around suicide can contribute to stigma, shame and stop people from seeking and offering support. They need to change.

Integrating knowledge from the psychology of suicide, research evidence and voices from lived experience, this seminar challenges dominant narratives about suicide and invites us to see suicide and suicide prevention differently. Changing the way we think, seeing suicide as action, and responding to suicide using a trauma-transformative approach might help create environments where people feel safer, supported and more connected.

Dr. Chris Bowden is a senior lecturer and suicide researcher in the Faculty of Education, Health and Psychological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka. He lectures in child and adolescent mental health, interventions, and counselling, and his research areas include suicide prevention, postvention, and trauma-transformative practice.