CCRI Seminar: Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm The five of us have come together in our shared experience and interest in researching self-harm and self-injury. We each come from different contexts and occupy different positionalities in relation to this topic. And, we also share a focus on how practitioners who work with self-harm/self-injury relate to it in the context of their practice. Drawing on this, in this seminar, we will focus on moments of in/coherence and conflict in researching self-harm/self-injury. We will draw on our individual and collaborative research projects to explore such moments and discuss how our methodologies have enabled us to stay longer, encompass and deepen our engagement with them. In doing so, we trouble more neat and dominant understandings and assumptions about working with self-harm/self-injury. Speaker Bio: Amy Chandler is a Professor of the Sociology of Health and Illness in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh.Zoi Simopoulou is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh and an Art Therapist. Ethan Bird (he/him) is a part-time student at the University of Edinburgh on the Counselling (MCouns) programme. His dissertation employed creative and autoethnographic methods to deconstruct the essentialist understandings, which frame self-harm as a purely individualistic and intrinsically feminine phenomenon. He is also a practicing counsellor, currently working with young people within schools.Fiona Stirling is a practicing therapist and lecturer in Counselling at Abertay University, Scotland. Coming from a background in social anthropology, with further qualifications in Education, Psychology, and Youth and Childhood, Fiona is passionate about building collaborative relationships to explore topics of mental health in new ways. Her own lived experience of mental health issues and self-injury increasingly inform both her research and therapeutic practice.Jing Xuan Yap is a second-year PhD student in Counselling Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores the lived experiences of self-harming children from an existential phenomenology perspective, informed by her positionality as a primary school counsellor and her own experience of being labeled as a self-harmer. Tags 2025 Nov 05 2025 16.30 - 17.45 CCRI Seminar: Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm CCRI Seminar, presented by Amy Chandler, Zoi Simopoulou, Ethan Bird, Fiona Stirling, and Jing Xuan Yap, on Wednesday 5 November: 'Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm' Join us in person at Room 5.3, Lister Learning and Teaching Centre or via the Zoom link below, using the following meeting ID and passcode: Meeting ID: 864 8365 8963 Passcode: 5ZCM8y Zoom Meeting Link
CCRI Seminar: Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm The five of us have come together in our shared experience and interest in researching self-harm and self-injury. We each come from different contexts and occupy different positionalities in relation to this topic. And, we also share a focus on how practitioners who work with self-harm/self-injury relate to it in the context of their practice. Drawing on this, in this seminar, we will focus on moments of in/coherence and conflict in researching self-harm/self-injury. We will draw on our individual and collaborative research projects to explore such moments and discuss how our methodologies have enabled us to stay longer, encompass and deepen our engagement with them. In doing so, we trouble more neat and dominant understandings and assumptions about working with self-harm/self-injury. Speaker Bio: Amy Chandler is a Professor of the Sociology of Health and Illness in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh.Zoi Simopoulou is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh and an Art Therapist. Ethan Bird (he/him) is a part-time student at the University of Edinburgh on the Counselling (MCouns) programme. His dissertation employed creative and autoethnographic methods to deconstruct the essentialist understandings, which frame self-harm as a purely individualistic and intrinsically feminine phenomenon. He is also a practicing counsellor, currently working with young people within schools.Fiona Stirling is a practicing therapist and lecturer in Counselling at Abertay University, Scotland. Coming from a background in social anthropology, with further qualifications in Education, Psychology, and Youth and Childhood, Fiona is passionate about building collaborative relationships to explore topics of mental health in new ways. Her own lived experience of mental health issues and self-injury increasingly inform both her research and therapeutic practice.Jing Xuan Yap is a second-year PhD student in Counselling Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores the lived experiences of self-harming children from an existential phenomenology perspective, informed by her positionality as a primary school counsellor and her own experience of being labeled as a self-harmer. Tags 2025 Nov 05 2025 16.30 - 17.45 CCRI Seminar: Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm CCRI Seminar, presented by Amy Chandler, Zoi Simopoulou, Ethan Bird, Fiona Stirling, and Jing Xuan Yap, on Wednesday 5 November: 'Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm' Join us in person at Room 5.3, Lister Learning and Teaching Centre or via the Zoom link below, using the following meeting ID and passcode: Meeting ID: 864 8365 8963 Passcode: 5ZCM8y Zoom Meeting Link
Nov 05 2025 16.30 - 17.45 CCRI Seminar: Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm CCRI Seminar, presented by Amy Chandler, Zoi Simopoulou, Ethan Bird, Fiona Stirling, and Jing Xuan Yap, on Wednesday 5 November: 'Staying with and living in in/coherence in researching self-harm'
