Self-harm in children and young people remains a major clinical challenge, raising important questions about how we understand risk, respond effectively, and support young people and their families. Bringing together leading international experts, this conference will explore current evidence and key developments in the field, from emerging insights into the neurobiology of self-harm to the role of emotion regulation, assessment and engagement in care.
The programme will also consider the needs of young people with learning disabilities and other neurodevelopmental differences, as well as the important role families can play following a self-harm crisis. Across the day, speakers will connect research with clinical practice, offering different perspectives on how we can better understand and respond to self-harm in children and adolescents.
Register for the event & pricing
Sign up at this link or on the Book Now buttons, and complete the form that follows. You’ll then receive an email confirmation and a link to the webinar, plus we’ll send you a calendar reminder nearer the time.
Delegates will have exclusive access to recordings for 90 days after the event, together with slides. Plus you will get a personalised CPD/CME certificate via email. Recordings from the session will be available to delegates from 5 working days after the event.
- ACAMH Members MUST login to book onto the webinar in order to access this webinar and get a CPD/CME certificate.
- Non-members: this is a great time to join ACAMH, take a look at what we have to offer, and make the saving on these sessions.
| Ticket Type | Price |
|---|---|
| ACAMH paying Members (Online, Concession) | EARLY BIRD £119 (until 27/10/26 then £159)(Join now and save) |
| ACAMH Learn Account Holders | EARLY BIRD £169 (until 27/10/26 then £209) |
| Non Members | EARLY BIRD £169 (until 27/10/26 then £209) |
| ACAMH Undergraduate/ Postgraduate Members | £15 |
| LMIC Members | Free |
Who should attend
This conference is relevant for professionals working with children and young people who may be at risk of, or have experienced, self-harm, including: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, Clinical, Counselling and Educational Psychologists, CAMHS Practitioners and Mental Health Clinicians, Paediatricians and Community Children’s Health Professionals, Mental Health Nurses, Psychotherapists and Psychological Therapists, Social Workers and Family Support Practitioners, School Mental Health Leads, Counsellors and Educational Professionals, Researchers and Academics in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Professionals working with young people with learning disabilities and neurodevelopmental conditions, Students and Trainees in relevant health, mental health and education disciplines, Service Managers, Commissioners and Policy Professionals with responsibility for children’s mental health services.
Programme
| 10:30 | Chair Professor Dennis Ougrin Welcome and Introduction |
| 10:40 | Professor Nav Kapur ‘Broad overview of current evidence and key issues in the field’ |
| 11:10 | Q&A Session |
| 11:20 | Professor Paul Plener ‘How neurobiology can inform our clinical understanding of self-harm’ |
| 11:50 | Q&A Session |
| 12:00 | Refreshment & Reflection break |
| 12:15 | Professor Rose McCabe ‘Therapeutic Assessment and Solution-Focused Interventions for Self-Harm’ |
| 12:45 | Q&A Session |
| 12:55 | Lunch |
| 14:05 | Reconnect & resume |
| 14:10 | Professor Caroline Richards ‘Self-injury in children and young people with a learning disability’ |
| 14:40 | Q&A Session |
| 14:50 | Associate Professor Johan Bjureberg ‘Emotion regulation and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents’ |
| 15:20 | Q&A Session |
| 15:30 | Refreshment & Reflection break |
| 15:45 | Professor Joan Asarnow ‘Engaging families in safety planning after a self-harm crisis’ |
| 16:15 | Q&A Session |
| 16:25 | Closing Remarks |
| 16:30 | Close |
* Programme is subject to change
Professor Nav Kapur ‘Broad overview of current evidence and key issues in the field’
Details to follow.
Professor Paul Plener ‘How neurobiology can inform our clinical understanding of self-harm’
Self-harm remains a clinically challenging condition, often encountered in child and adolescent mental health care. This presentation examines how advances in our neurobiological understanding can deepen clinical formulations of self-harming behavior and inform more targeted intervention. Research has identified alterations in several mechanisms underlying affect regulation circuitry, pain processing, stress reactivity, and reward systems. Evidence implicates dysregulation in prefrontal-limbic circuits, altered endogenous opioid signaling, and blunted cortisol responses responses in individuals who engage in self-harm, suggesting that these behaviors may serve functions such as affect regulation, dissociation interruption, or restoration of a sense of control. A neurobiologically informed understanding of these mechanisms enable therapists to provide relevant information in psychoeducation and psychotherapy.
This talk synthesizes findings across neuroscience and mental health work to propose an integrative understanding that neither reduces self-harm to a purely biological phenomenon nor treats it in isolation from lived experience and relational context. Attention is given to how this framework can shape clinical assessment, inform psychoeducation for patients and families, and guide the development of interventions that target underlying regulatory mechanisms rather than symptoms alone.
By grounding clinical understanding in neurobiological mechanism while remaining attentive to psychological and social dimensions, this presentation aims to support clinicians, researchers, and trainees in developing compassionate, mechanism-informed approaches to assessment and care.
Learning outcomes
- Describe the key neurobiological systems implicated in self-harm behavior and explain their proposed functional role in affect regulation.
- Apply neurobiological insights to clinical practice by incorporating mechanism-informed language into patient/family psychoeducation and considering regulatory targets when developing or adapting treatment approaches.
- Integrate neurobiological understanding with psychological and relational/contextual factors to develop a more comprehensive case conceptualization.
Professor Rose McCabe ‘Therapeutic Assessment and Solution-Focused Interventions for Self-Harm’
Details to follow.
Professor Caroline Richards ‘Self-injury in children and young people with a learning disability’
Details to follow.
Associate Professor Johan Bjureberg ‘Emotion regulation and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents’
Details to follow.
Professor Joan Asarnow ‘Engaging families in safety planning after a self-harm crisis’
Details to follow.
FAQs on the topic
1. Why do teenagers and young people self-harm?
Self-harm is typically linked to multiple interacting factors rather than a single cause, spanning psychological, social and biological influences. Difficulties regulating intense emotions, trauma, bullying, family adversity and social isolation can all contribute, and neurobiological research is clarifying how brain development and stress responses play a part. For many young people, it is a way of coping with overwhelming distress rather than a wish to die.
2. Does self-harm mean a young person is suicidal?
Not necessarily. Many young people who self-harm are not trying to end their life, and self-harm and suicidal behaviour are distinct. However, self-harm is one of the strongest known predictors of future suicide attempts, so every episode should be taken seriously and explored compassionately, without assumptions about intent, to understand what the behaviour means for that young person.
3. What is the most effective treatment for self-harm in adolescents?
Psychological interventions are the cornerstone of treatment. Among adolescents with repeated self-harm, DBT currently has the strongest evidence base, particularly for building emotion regulation and reducing self-harm. Cognitive behavioural and mentalization-based approaches may also help some young people, though evidence is less consistent. Successful interventions commonly combine emotion regulation and problem-solving skills, family involvement, safety planning, and support to stay engaged with services.
4. Why is self-injury more common in children and young people with a learning disability?
Self-injury is more common in children and young people with a learning disability, yet often under-recognised. It may present differently, for example through self-hitting or skin-picking rather than cutting, and can be harder to identify because standard assessment tools rarely account for differences in communication and development. Adapting assessment and support to each young person’s communication, sensory and developmental needs is essential.
5. How can parents help a teenager who is self-harming?
Families are among the strongest protective factors after a self-harm crisis. Responding calmly and without judgement, keeping communication open, and noticing changes in mood or behaviour all help. Evidence supports involving parents and carers in collaborative safety planning, including reducing access to means and supporting coping strategies, while respecting the young person’s confidentiality and encouraging engagement with treatment.
Meet the speakers
Professor Nav Kapur – Nav is Professor of Psychiatry and Population Health at the University and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. He is Director of the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health and Head of Research at the Centre for Mental Health and Safety.
Nav is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (England) and helps to lead a major NHS England Quality Improvement Initiative focussed on suicide prevention.
He has held a number of roles for NICE including chairing the development groups for the NICE self-harm guidelines and Quality Standards. He was also topic expert for the NICE suicide prevention guideline. Most recently he chaired the Guideline Committee for the NICE depression in adults guideline and was Expert Topic Advisor for the new NICE self-harm guideline.
He is academic programme lead for the Integrated Academic Training Scheme (Walport Scheme) in Psychiatry.
Nav has published over 400 peer reviewed papers. He is the lead author of Suicide Prevention (Oxford University Press 2019, a single volume primer on the science and practice of preventing suicide.
He is the recipient of two of the most important global awards for suicide prevention – the International Association for Suicide Prevention Stengel Research Award for outstanding research in the field of suicidology and the American Association of Suicidology Louis I. Dublin lifetime achievement award for suicide prevention. Several of his papers have won awards including the British Journal of General Practice Research paper of the year.
In 2025 he was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners, the College’s highest honour, for outstanding contributions to general practice.
Professor Dr. Paul Plener is chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Medical University of Vienna, as well as the head of the Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Vienna General hospital. He is the president of the Austrian society of Child and Adolesent Psychiatry and a member of the Austrian Supreme Medical Council. He is an invited fellow of the International Society for the Study of Self-injury. Prof. Plener´s reserach focus is on Nonsuicidal Self-injury, suicidality and trauma-related disorders.
Professor Rose McCabe is Professor of Clinical Communication at City, University of London and co-Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at City. She is an Honorary Professor in East London NHS Foundation Trust, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Queen Mary, University of London. Her research focuses on understanding patient experience, professional-patient communication, the therapeutic relationship and developing interventions to improve communication, therapeutic relationships and outcomes of mental healthcare. Central to this work is involving people with lived experience in designing and evaluating new approaches to care. Key concepts of interest include agency, coercion, epistemic injustice, trust and engagement. She works across a range of issues (psychosis, self-harm, depression, dementia) and treatment settings (inpatient and community mental health care, emergency departments, primary care). She also works with community organisations and schools to improve mental health and wellbeing.
Professor Caroline Richards is Professor of Neurodevelopmental Conditions at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. She also co-leads the Cerebra Network. The aim of Professor Richards’ research is to reduce negative clinical outcomes for individuals with intellectual disability. Her work with children with autism and children with rare genetic syndromes has thus far focused on reducing self-injury, improving sleep disorders and understanding the impact of premature birth. Her research uses experimental, epidemiological, single case and meta-analytic techniques to delineate risk markers, improve precision in models of mechanism and develop novel, proactive interventions.
Associate Professor Johan Bjureberg – I study maladaptive behaviors, such as self-injury and aggression, theorized – at least in part – to stem from emotion-regulation difficulties. I study these behaviors and their proposed underlying mechanisms from a psychotherapeutic and epidemiological perspective. Beyond studying these phenotypes in registries and evaluating if our treatments are efficacious, I aim to design trials that examine key mechanisms through which treatments work. This has the potential of making already effective treatments even more effective and can deepen our understanding of the etiologies of different phenomenon.
Professor Joan Asarnow is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a clinical psychologist. Her current work focuses on interventions and service delivery strategies for improving health and mental health in youth, with an emphasis on suicide/suicide attempt prevention and depression. She has led efforts to disseminate evidence-based treatments for child and adolescent depression and suicide prevention, working across multiple service settings including emergency departments, primary care, mental health, and school settings.