Finding Meaning After a Suicide Attempt

Touro professor Yosef Sokol, PhD, has devoted much of his research to helping people who have attempted suicide recover. The current approach to recovery focuses on preventing more suicidal thoughts. Sokol doesn’t believe this is an effective approach. Instead, he believes that helping these people develop a sense of who they are and create meaning in their lives will lead to recovery.

Trying to prevent more suicidal thoughts in people who have attempted suicide is not necessarily helpful, says Sokol, clinical assistant professor in the PsyD program at Touro University School of Health Sciences. The standard cognitive behavioral models tend to focus on changing thoughts and emotions but don’t consider a person’s identity.

Sokol conducted a comprehensive review of the research on recovery, including models for people with other conditions like addiction and schizophrenia. Through this research, he developed a model of recovery that helps people develop meaning in their lives.

The new study, which was published in the Archives of Suicide Research, shows that the slow process of putting one’s life back together after a suicide attempt tends to follow a common three-stage path: precontemplation, contemplation and active growth.

Through the first two stages, people move from having no hope to starting to see a possibility for recovery and glimpses of their meaningfulness to others. In the third stage, they start to take small steps in developing coping skills, strengthening their relationships, and rediscovering a sense of meaning and purpose.

“This last stage becomes the foundation for their unique life worth living. They continue to work within this stage to maintain their growth as challenges occur,” says Sokol. The model draws on Transtheoretical Model of Change, a framework to understand how people overcome addiction. It also builds on Sokol’s prior research developing the COURAGE model, which outlines seven key components of a thriving life after suicidal despair: Choosing life, Optimizing identity, Understanding oneself, Rediscovering meaning, Acceptance, Growing connectedness and Empowerment.

“We often think of recovery as this monumental, binary thing—either you’re ‘cured’ or you’re not,” says Sokol. “We want people to know that recovery is a process, and it looks different for everyone. But it is absolutely possible to find meaning and hope again.”

Sokol hopes that his model will be adopted by clinicians working with people recovering from attempted suicide.