THE BODY AS A
VOICE
Clinical Psychologist
Speaker & Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Consultant
FEEDBACK I’VE RECEIVED
WHY "THE BODY AS A VOICE"?
The skin erupts in a mouth, tongueless, toothless.
A voice drips out, liquid.
A voice bubbles out, fluid and scabby.
A voice sears itself for a moment, in flesh.
This is a voice emerging on the skin, a mouth appearing on the skin.
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Early on in my research into NSSI, I was fascinated by McLane's (1996) quote & the rich descriptive writing of Kafka (1969), Anzieu's (1985, 1989) Skin Ego and Freud's (1925/1991) "A Note upon the 'Mystic Writing Pad'". These works resonated very strongly with my anecdotal experience of young people self-injuring. The general experience spoke of a struggle and frustration in communicating the distress or stress that they were experiencing. The body became the voice, and self-injury a means of transcribing it. My understanding and conceptualisation of NSSI has developed considerably over the past decade and a half, yet I still believe there is a strong communicative drive in this behaviour.
“When we describe a bit of human behavior as crazy we usually mean to push it aside as something alien to us, as something not germane to the ordinary conduct of life, yet every thoughtful [person] knows well that aberrant forms of behavior are only exaggerations of trends that lie deep within [them]self, that in the behavior of the insane [they] see written large tendencies that sleep in [their] own constitution".
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SERVICES AVAILABLE
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EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development for staff & parent information sessions
POLICY DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT
NSSI policy development, review, implementation & support
I cannot recommend Madeline enough. Not only was her workshop engaging and informative, but she was also able to tailor content specific to the uniqueness that is the boarding environment.
We would welcome Madeline back to our school at any time and are so appreciative of the important work she is doing in the NSSI space.
Jennifer Johnson-Saul
School Counsellor
Toowoomba Grammar School
Thank you so much for the great PD...Your information and resources are incredibly helpful, of such a high standard, relevant and useful to us here at Heathdale. The PD was engaging all day. I usually struggle to keep at a very high level of attention for such a long time but in your presentation I was hesitating to go to the loo!
Linda Timmermans
Chaplain for Students
Heathdale Christian College
It was one of the most outstanding PDs I have attended. It was so relevant, practical, funny & inspiring. Thank you for so freely sharing your resources & insights.
Thank you so much for your insightful presentation today. It was extremely engaging and the content incredibly useful
Tracey Burnett
School Psychologist
Nazareth College
Sarah Pearson
Provisional Psychologist
Amazing, passionate & interesting training, informative, knowledgeable - I would recommend to everyone!
anonymous feedback provided by a
YSAS Youth Worker
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I highly recommend Madeline's workshops and presentations. Madeline provided my colleagues and me with excellent practical resources, and the relevant research outcomes, to be competent and confident in managing NSSI in schools. Madeline is a highly informative and engaging presenter
Rozalia Hecht
​Psychologist, MAPS
Thank you for a wonderful workshop on non-suicidal self-injury; a difficult and at times very confronting topic. It has been a long time since I attended such a practical workshop and I appreciate your generosity in sharing all your resources. It’s always great to walk away from a workshop with some new tools I can use in my work with teenagers. Thank you for your time, knowledge and insight
Christie Khoury
Psychologist, Secondary Department, Maronite College of the Holy Family