Therapy-related assessment of self-harming behaviors in eating disordered patients: a case illustration.
Understanding an individual's self-harming behaviors should be the basis for selecting person-specific therapeutic interventions. For that purpose, the assessment is aimed at identifying the self-harming behaviors and related symptoms as well as analyzing the external (situational) and internal (cognitive and emotional) conditions that contribute directly to the instigation of the self-harming behaviors. In this article, we demonstrate the use of a new assessment procedure that may guide the selection of therapeutic interventions. Data collection and processing are illustrated by an individual case study of an eating-disordered patient showing different types of self-harming behavior such as vomiting, alcohol abuse, cutting, and suicide attempts.
Claes
Laurence
L
Catholic University of Leuven, Department of Psychology, Belgium. laurence.claes@psy.kuleuven.ac.be
Vandereycken
Walter
W
Vertommen
Hans
H