If a child is telling you they will kill themselves, tell them that you take them seriously and want to hear their concerns. Ask them to make a contract that they will not kill themselves for a week. If they refuse a one-week contract (too long), ask for the contract to stand for a few days. If that is too long for them to wait to kill themselves, try a day, and keep working on them. If it can only be for an hour, so be it. Stay with them until they process through and this difficulty passes. Piaget described the individual in the learning process as having to form a new map after every crisis, moving a child toward self-actualization through positive interdependence.   

 

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