The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

Nicholas J. Westers

Booking Overview

This is an expert interview show focused on self-injury, self-harm, and mental health, featuring clinical psychologists, academic researchers, and selected contributors with lived experience or family perspectives. Credible pitches include self-injury researchers, licensed mental-health clinicians, relevant authors, and carefully vetted lived-experience advocates; booking difficulty is medium because guests generally need specialized clinical, academic, or subject-matter credentials.

Metrics

Episodes: 76

Frequency: Monthly

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Neutral

Location: USA

Instagram: 2.3k followers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

nicholas.westers@childrens.com

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Host

Nicholas J. Westers - Clinical psychologist at Children's Health and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He collaborates with the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

medium

Typical Credentials:

Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, academic researchers, specialized mental-health practitioners, relevant authors, and selected individuals with direct lived experience or family expertise.

Required Achievements:

Peer-reviewed research on self-injury, self-harm, suicide prevention, or related mental-health subjects, University, hospital, or research-lab affiliations, Relevant books or professional publications, Specialized clinical practice or substantial lived-experience expertise

Recent Guest Discussions

Julian Koenig - Pain Sensitivity, Pain Research, And The Relationship Between Pain And Nonsuicidal Self-injury.

Michael Kaess - Neurobiology, Biological Risk Factors, The Vagus Nerve, Cortisol, And The HPA Axis In Self-injury.

Taylor A. Burke - The Psychological Meaning, Concealment, And Mental-health Effects Of Nonsuicidal Self-injury Scars.

Katie H. Gordon - The Relationship Between Eating Disorders And Self-harm, Including Shared Risk Factors And Overlapping Behaviors.

Recent Topics

Self Injury, Clinical Psychology, Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, Eating Disorders

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

Lived Experience: Brittany's Story of Self-Injury & Faith (Re-Release)

August 28, 2026

In this episode, Brittany details her experience of engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), how it started, and how she makes sense of self-injury and her faith in God. She explains two starkly different responses she received from church leaders and shares insights about how youth pastors in particular can provide supportive responses to students who engage in self-injury and self-harm. Purchase Brittany's new book Stories Our Scars Tell: Hope, Healing, and Honesty about the Wounds...

The Psychology of Self-Injury Pain (Re-Release)

July 31, 2026

What is the relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and pain? Are individuals who self-injure less sensitive to pain than those who don’t self-injure? What are the ethics involved in conducting research on pain? In this episode, Dr. Julian Koenig describes the research on the experience of pain among those who self-harm. Learn more about Dr. Koenig and his research lab at www.koeniglab.de. Below are links to some of the research referenced in this episode: Koenig, J., Thayer, J....

The Neurobiology of Self-Injury (in Layman's Terms) [Re-Release]

June 26, 2026

What goes on at the neurobiological level that makes someone more vulnerable to self-injure or self-harm? What biological risk factors are at play? What roles do the vagus nerve, cortisol levels, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have? We hope to discuss the psychology of self-injury pain in a future episode, but in this episode, Dr. Michael Kaess from the University of Bern in Switzerland explains the neurobiology of self-injury in simple terms, or what we hope can be considered ...

Publicly listed emails

nicholas.westers@childrens.com

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