Pieta provide free counselling to those with suicidal ideation, those engaging in self-harm, and those bereaved by suicide. Staff are fully qualified and provide a professional one-to-one therapeutic service.

The Pieta Way is our therapy model which focuses on identifying and building resources and protective factors for the client. The specific areas of need or each client is based on the issues identified by the Nine Boxes review. The Nine Boxes include relationships, health, and hobbies.

Pieta’s therapy model is founded on Shneidman’s (1985) assertion that while part of the individual wants to die another part wants to live and, if navigated successfully, suicidal crises need not be fatal.

The therapy model necessitated by Pieta must therefore provide an effective and immediate intervention that can be shown to redress the client’s wish to die and strengthen their will to live, a focus often neglected in intervention models (Ramsay, 2004).

Furthermore, given that suicidal behaviour is a complex process resulting from an intricate interplay of biological, psychological, environmental and situational factors (Wasserman et al., 2012), there is a need for an element of flexibility to adapt the therapy to fulfil the individual needs of the client.