Welcome to the work of my heart and soul for so many years, issues of The Cutting Edge newsletter! I will be adding more and more of these over time, but wanted to begin slowly and selectively. After all, there are 18 years of them to ponder and play with.
In the first years of publication the newsletter’s subtitle was “for women” as I, like many people, believed the issue of self-directed violence (SDV) was limited to women and girls. Was I wrong! Soon after the newsletter began it’s travel around the planet I received a deeply moving poem from a young man living in South Dakota. He acknowledged that his work would not be published in the newsletter because of his gender but asked me to read it as he had no one else to trust with his words. In moments I had written a letter, with tears streaming, asking him for permission to publish, letting him know I had changed the words of the subtitle to “people.” He kindly accepted my apology and I was honored to publish his words.
That was just the beginning of learning that so much of what has been published in the professional journals was incredibly off base, blatantly wrong. The Cutting Edge traveled to five continents over the years and I soon learned that all sorts of people live with SDV: women, men, children and youth of all ages, cultures, races, religions, economic and educational backgrounds, sexual orientations… wherever people are coping with the impacts of trauma you can discover people utilizing SDV to cope. I celebrate the many voices you will find in these newsletters, they have been my teachers and my peers. Please keep coming back as I will be adding more as we go along…
TCE 69, let the scarred people help
TCE 70, you’ll stop when its time
Healing Self-Injury 