Self-Harm
Cultivate true compassion, love, and acceptance for yourself
Disconnect from Self-Harm
Often offering a short-term sense of relief, self-harm, is used as a means to cope with painful and overwhelming thoughts and feelings. Because of the temporary relief experienced immediately following the behavior, self-harm can easily become a normal way to deal with life’s difficulties, thereby creating a powerful cycle of ‘self-treatment’ difficult to overcome.
Most acts of self-harm include the cutting, burning, or picking away of the superficial layers of the skin; often on areas of the body that are easy to conceal— such as the upper arms, legs, and stomach areas. However, self-harm may also include: head banging, hair pulling, punching, pinching, or biting the skin causing swelling, redness, and bruising to the area. Although often not a suicide attempt, self-poisoning and overdosing are also methods employed to temporarily relieve a person of the pain they are feeling.
It is important to realize that self-harm is not a form of attention-seeking. This behavior is often done in private, and as a means to reclaim a sense of control in the person’s own life— and is usually a direct response to the lack of which they have in a current or had in a past experience.
Healing Happens Here
STAR Can Help
Self-harm is a compulsive behavior that rarely has anything to do with the act itself. Instead, it’s an attempt to anesthetize or medicate from overwhelming childhood feelings of pain and grief. The elements behind the compulsive behavior are common in those who struggle with them: Childhood trauma, abuse, and dysfunctional family dynamics which resulted in the individual feeling abandoned unloved, and defective.
STAR’s safe and loving environment will enable you to look inside and find the origin of the feelings which are so painful. Only then can you move beyond the behavior which is holding you back.
“As a STAR graduate, I can personally attest to the effect STAR had on my own life. It brought out a true transformation. STAR was an incredible process for my healing.”
“Eye opening! More work to do, but an excellent start.”
“Each day was a profound awakening of self and life. I stand here today knowing I am enough, my layers peeled back and revealing my beautiful vulnerable self to all and am not afraid because I understand and I can! What an amazing way to transform and understand my world! Thank you STAR for showing me the way to ME”
“I feel I can now live rather than just survive and suffer in silence. It allowed me to drop down and really listen to the wisdom within me.”