Child Self harm - parent support

[TT03]

I recently found out my daughter is self harming. I feel lost. My head is a whirl wind of emotions and feel completely helpless. I have spent the day just having outbursts of tears. I’ve rescheduled out to her school & I have a support programme via my employer. But I just wondered how other parents managed? I am doing my best to understand. My daughter has helped me see the reasons why and I’ve listened and supported her. But behind closed doors My heart is breaking. I just want to help her get through this. Appreciate any advice or guidance.

Sorry to hear this, op. How old is she?

DD went through this but is (for now) fully recovered. She saw a psychologist who helped us see it in terms of both the underlying unhappiness that prompted the harm (for DD this was around school friendships) and the harm as a habit to break. One thing that her
psychologist recommended for the latter was for her to identify the times of day when she felt most likely to self harm and then for me to sit with her during those times, just very relaxed watching Netflix and having hot chocolate together- not there talking to her about the self harming, just hanging out. This made a huge difference and was obviously an easy thing to do.

Could I ask what type of psychologist you found? I am in the same boat and finding it hard to identify a good person to see and the ones I have contacted have not responded