Historical coping frameworks either omit suicidality or classify it as maladaptive, severing it from the functional continuum of emotion regulation. Both positions reflect an observer-imposed logic in which strategies are judged by their acceptability to the observer rather than understood as functional responses to overwhelming distress. Observer-imposed conceptualisation directly shapes what clinicians assess, how they construct formulations, and what treatments they select — at times resulting in harm to consumers who disclose coping strategies associated with harm, including alcohol use, self-harm, and suicidality.

A consumer-centred framework requires classifying coping strategies from the consumer's perspective. The Health Theory of Coping recognises the functionality of all coping strategies and classifies them solely by whether they carry short- or longer-term adverse consequences for the person. Every strategy is located on a single continuum of coping behaviour spanning unpleasant emotions, distress, and overwhelming distress, from low intensity and low harm to high intensity and high harm. Bayesian network modelling across these distress levels confirmed this continuum structure and established that overwhelming distress does not preclude concurrent use of healthy strategies.

Consumer-centred conceptualisation of coping reorients clinical assessment, formulation, and treatment toward a strengths perspective that builds on what consumers already do to manage emotion. The My Coping Plan app operationalises this reorientation — normalising coping, directing clinical attention toward what consumers want (to cope) rather than what clinicians want for them (safety), and providing a consumer-directed alternative to clinician-constructed safety planning that supports consumers to access and apply healthy strategies when distress is overwhelming.

CE Learning Objectives

Following this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe three limitations of observer-centred coping frameworks in the assessment and formulation of consumers who use coping strategies associated with harm, including suicidality

2. Explain how the Health Theory of Coping reconceptualises suicidality and other high-harm coping strategies as functional responses on a continuum from unpleasant emotions to overwhelming distress

3. Identify one practice change you could make in the conceptualisation of consumers that would reduce the risk of harm to consumers who disclose high-harm coping strategies.

About Presenter

Helen Stallman, Ph.D., serves as Founder and Director of Care  Collaborate Connect. She is an award-winning clinical psychologist whose research and clinical work spans suicide prevention, consumer-centred care, health and wellbeing. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and received 11 awards recognising her contributions to suicide prevention and university student wellbeing.

She developed the Health Theory of Coping, the Coping Continuum, and the Modifiable Domains of Health and Wellbeing — three theoretical frameworks that underpin Care · Collaborate · Connect, a world-first consumer-centred approach to suicide prevention and clinical care delivered to health professionals, organisations, and schools. She also developed the My Coping Plan app, whose efficacy in reducing psychological distress has been confirmed in two randomised controlled trials.

She delivers keynote addresses nationally and internationally on consumer-centred approaches to suicide prevention, clinical formulation, and health and wellbeing. Her presentations translate theoretical frameworks directly into practice — giving health professionals concrete tools to assess, formulate, and support consumers who ask for support, without causing harm.

Target Audience

This workshop is designed for licensed professionals & advanced graduate students with clinical experience who anticipate seeking licensure as mental health professionals. The instructional level of this presentation is INTERMEDIATE.

Continuing Education

• Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists*. Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
• This program provides two (2) hours of CE credits.
• * PBTA offers CE to licensed psychologists licensed in the state of New York. Attestation of full attendance and provision of license number post-event required to obtain certificate that meets NY criteria for CE.
  
• PBTA is also an authorized provider of CE credits for Professional Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Clinical Social Workers licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. Non-psychologist licensees in other states should confirm with their respective boards if this meets criteria for CE in their specific non-PA states.
  
• Full attendance with video display is required to obtain CE credit for this program. APA guidelines do not permit PBTA to issue partial CE credits. No refunds are provided for CE programs. No exceptions allowed. Registrants have the option to log in and cancel up to 48 hours before event when registration closes.
  

Zoom video link will be sent to participants 48 hours before the event contingent upon membership being paid in full if membership rate was selected. NOTE: New membership period begins 2/1 of each calendar year. Enrollment for non-members is automatically cancelled if registration fee is not paid within 15 minutes of registration. Past members who have not renewed membership will not be eligible for no-cost CE credits.

References

Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129(2), 216–269. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.2.216

Stallman, H. M. (2019). Efficacy of the My Coping Plan mobile application in reducing distress: A randomised controlled trial. Clinical Psychologist, 23(3), 206–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/cp.12185

Stallman, H. M. (2020). Health theory of coping. Australian Psychologist, 55, 295–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12465

Stallman, H. M. (2020). Suicide following hospitalisation: Systemic treatment failure needs to be the focus rather than risk factors. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), 303.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30528-0

Stallman, H. M., Beaudequin, D., Hermens, D. F., & Eisenberg, D. (2021). Modelling the relationship between healthy and unhealthy coping strategies to understand overwhelming distress: A Bayesian network approach. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 3, 100054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2020.100054

Stallman, H. M., Ohan, J. L., & Chiera, B. (2019). Reducing distress in university students: A randomised control trial of two online interventions. Australian Psychologist, 54(2), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12375