Self-harm is when you hurt yourself as a way of dealing with very difficult feelings, old memories, or overwhelming situations and experiences.

Art therapy can be helpful in treating self-harming behaviour as the art-making can give an alternative external expression of this inner pain. Clients find the process useful as they can express their difficult emotions without necessarily having to talk.

The ways people who self-harm hurt themselves can be physical, like cutting, or through not eating, or by putting themselves in risky situations and generally not looking after their own physical or emotional needs.