If I told my new therapist that I self harmed….

[Sparklydiplodocus]

…. Would they tell my GP? I’m a mother and I don’t want there being any question over my abilities as a mother or any worry that I’m an unfit parent. I would never hurt my son.

It depends on the extent of the self harm. If it puts you at immediate risk of serious harm, they would need to pass that information on. In most cases that would not apply, they'd recognise it as an unhealthy coping mechanism and work with you to find other techniques.

I don’t think so. But I told my GP about my self harm and nothing happened about my DC if that reassures you.

Probably not, because all your GP would do is to refer you to therapy, where you already are, or prescribe antidepressants.

Therapy should be a safe place to talk about subjects like this.

Even if your GP did know that you had self harmed, it would take a lot to escalate from that to a safeguarding concern about your parenting abilities. Do you know how many people in the UK self harm? It's a lot, and the majority of the time it is not considered a safeguarding issue for children.

I don't think you have anything to worry about and professionals will only really escalate concerns if you are in immediate danger, or if they can see that there is something wrong with your child or parenting ability.

Please just focus on getting better and try to be as open as possible in therapy, because that gives the best chance of it making positive difference to your life :)

@Sparklydiplodocus

…. Would they tell my GP? I’m a mother and I don’t want there being any question over my abilities as a mother or any worry that I’m an unfit parent. I would never hurt my son.

It would depend when you self-harmed and to what extent. If your self harm was of a kind that put your child at risk in other ways (eg could it cause you to lose consciousness) then that might be factored in. If it was historical rather than current it would be far less of an issue. As with all those kind of things it is down to context/circumstance.

Unless your self-harm has taken the form of serious efforts to take your own life, there is zero chance of them passing it on, honestly. Not to be flip, but self harm is so incredibly common that they won't register it as something that puts you or a child at significant risk unless the way you are doing it is very rare indeed.

Have you had your first session yet? Usually your therapist will explain the scenarios where they would have to break confidence, which iirc are if you are a serious danger to yourself or others, if a child is in danger, or if there are plans of terrorism.

'Just' self-harm wouldn't meet the threshold, and even if you told your GP yourself they still wouldn't question your parenting.

Getting help is the best thing you can do for yourself and your ds, well done

It was cuts on my ankle so nothing major.

It would only be reported if you were putting yourself or others at risk