Applying Neuroscience-Based Treatment to Self-Directed Violence

In this course, Dr. Chad Luke, Ph.D., LPC, defines self-directed violence and describes a continuum of behaviours from ideation through to suicide. Offering a strong rationale for why mental health professionals need to understand the nervous system to properly treat mental health issues, Luke explains the neurocircuitry of suicide. The Research Domain Criteria are, he asserts, the way of the future; he shows how self-directed violence may work with regard to the domains. Luke outlines his model of ten dimensions – five inputs and five outputs – which maps human growth and development onto nervous system priorities in terms of each dimension, with a corresponding theme for growth which emerges.