Teaching Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention: Start With Skills
A step-by-step health lesson for grades 6–10 that starts with everyday emotions and builds toward coping, connection, and asking for help.
Some lessons take a little more courage to open. Self-harm and suicide prevention is one of them. You want students to understand how serious these topics are. You also want them to feel comfortable enough to listen, ask questions, and leave knowing what they can actually DO.
So where do you start? EVERYDAY EMOTIONS.
Why Start a Suicide Prevention Lesson With Everyday Emotions?
Think about the advice teens hear all the time. “Use healthy coping skills.” “Talk to someone.” “Ask for help.”All useful. Also a little vague when you're 13, furious about something that happened at lunch, and have absolutely no idea how to begin that conversation.
Students need examples. They need words they can borrow. And they need a chance to practice while the situation is still fictional. That's the thinking behind this lesson. We begin with feelings students recognize, give them a simple way to discuss different responses, and build toward supportive conversations and trusted adults.
Self-harm and suicide are complex and have multiple contributing factors. Emotional regulation is one part of prevention, alongside supportive relationships and access to appropriate care. A classroom activity can help students practice skills; students who are struggling also need individual support.
Before You Teach: Put Support in Place
Check the lesson with your school counselor or mental health lead, including whether its content suits your students' ages and experiences. Know your school's response procedure, identify who is available for a private conversation, and check that support links are current.
Tell students what the lesson will cover before the playful opening. Let them pass on an activity or use an agreed way to access support. Keep discussion focused on fictional examples, and explain that nobody needs to share personal experiences.
The PSHE Association's guidance on suicide prevention education emphasizes specialist consultation and avoiding details that could be instructional or distressing. If your school has recently experienced a suicide, seek specialist guidance on supporting the community before planning a classroom lesson about it.
Step 1: Let Students Show You an Explosion and an Implosion
Ask students to show what an explosion looks like with their bodies. Then ask for an implosion. Students can participate with a small seated gesture or drawing, too.
Yes, this is a moment where a little theatrical energy helps.
Once you've got their attention, connect those movements to everyday emotional responses:
Explosion: A feeling comes out through behavior that hurts someone or damages something, such as yelling at a sibling after a difficult day.
Implosion: Someone repeatedly pushes feelings aside or pretends nothing is happening, even when they need support.
Healthy expression: Someone notices the feeling and chooses a safe response, such as writing, moving, crying, talking, or asking for help.
These are simple teaching metaphors. Keep the focus on recognizing responses and considering what might help. Students express feelings differently, and being quiet doesn't tell us whether someone is coping well.
Step 2: Use the Same Problem With Different Responses
Now give students an everyday situation: someone finds out they have to retake a math exam.
In one version, they go home and yell at their mom about the dishes. In another, they avoid thinking about the problem. In a third, they go for a run, acknowledge how frustrated they feel, and return to studying.
Ask: “What is the feeling? What did this person do with it? What might happen next?”
Keeping the situation the same helps students notice the choices around the feeling. Anger makes sense in every version. The response is what changes.
Leave room for nuance here. A short gaming break or time alone can be helpful. The question is whether that break helps someone return to the situation or becomes their only way of avoiding it.
Step 3: Bring Out the Three Bins
This is where the lesson gets students moving. You'll need three labeled bins and one soft ball.
Label the bins Explosion, Implosion, and Healthy Expression. Explain that the ball represents a strong emotion.
Here's how to play:
Name an emotion, such as anger, disappointment, jealousy, or excitement.
Pass the ball to a student who wants a turn.
Let them toss it into any bin. That chooses the response category for the next fictional example.
Have the class suggest what that response could look like. Keep any acting limited to safe, everyday gestures.
Discuss the likely effect, then generate a safe, helpful response to the same feeling.
For example, disappointment → explosion might become snapping at a teammate after losing a game. A helpful alternative could be taking a pause and saying, “I'm really frustrated. I need a minute before we talk.”
Students get to be creative with the everyday scenarios. The emotional skill is part of the game itself, so every round comes back to what someone could do next.
Debrief with questions like: “Which responses help in the moment? Which help later? When would you need another person's support?”
Step 4: Make a Clear, Calm Transition Into the Harder Topic
Now students have some shared language for feelings and coping. Pause the game, settle the room, and explain that you're moving into the more serious part of the lesson.
You might say: “Sometimes people intentionally hurt themselves when they feel distressed or numb. They deserve care and support, and there are safer ways to cope.”
Keep the focus on understanding distress, finding support, and knowing how to get help. Avoid asking students to list methods or share personal stories. Self-harm can happen with or without an intention to die, and it is associated with increased suicide risk. A friend should involve a trusted adult promptly rather than try to work out the level of risk themselves.
The University of Oxford's guide for school staff is useful background reading for teachers.
When discussing suicide, use clear, compassionate language. NIMH explains that asking directly about suicide does not increase suicidal thoughts or behavior. That finding supports direct, caring conversations; classroom teaching still needs careful planning and appropriate support.
Then return to an action students can practice. For example, turn “I have to handle everything myself” into “I'm having a hard time, and I can ask someone to help me.” Pair that thought with a concrete next step, such as approaching the counselor.
Step 5: Practice the Words for Asking for Help
“Tell a trusted adult” becomes much more useful when students have actually practiced saying it.
Use a brief fictional prompt: “I'm having a really hard time, and I need help telling an adult.” One partner practices asking for help; the other practices a supportive response. Then switch. Offer an observer or written option, too.
Give them three steps:
Show care. “Thank you for telling me. I care about you.”
Identify an adult. “Which adult could we talk to? I can go with you.”
Connect with help. If there is a concern about self-harm or suicide, tell a trusted adult promptly, even if the friend asks for secrecy.
Practice the helping conversation with calm, fictional wording. Students should never act out self-harm, a suicide attempt, or a suicidal crisis. Make the responsibility clear: a student can be a caring friend and bring an adult in. Adults and qualified professionals handle assessment and support. NIMH advises taking all talk of suicide seriously; students should not wait for a plan or decide whether a friend “really means it.”
If a real concern comes up, follow your school's response procedure and arrange prompt support. For an immediate safety concern, stay with the student, summon the designated responder, and use local emergency procedures.
Step 6: Turn “Trusted Adult” Into an Actual Person
To finish, students draw themselves in the middle of a page and map the people they could approach for support.
That might include a parent or caregiver, school counselor, teacher, nurse, coach, or another safe adult. Friends can belong on the map too, with a clear distinction about which adults can help with a safety concern.
Keep the map private. This is a useful moment to remind students that support networks look different, and they don't need a huge list. If a student can't name anyone, help them identify an available school adult privately.
Then make it practical: Where would you find that person? How could you start the conversation? Who is your backup if they're unavailable or don't respond helpfully?
“I could talk to someone” has now become “I can go to Ms. Patel's office and say, ‘I need to talk about something important.’”
That's a much more usable takeaway.
Step 7: Leave Time to Settle and Check In
Build in a quiet pause, a stretch, or an optional gentle movement break before the bell. Give students a chance to identify one coping action and one adult they could approach, without asking them to share private details aloud.
Remind them how to access support after class, too. An upbeat ending won't tell you how every student is feeling, so make space for individual follow-up.
The playful opening gives students an accessible way into the lesson. By the end, they have practiced language for emotions, supportive responses, and asking for help. Those skills are the reason for the activity.
Want the Complete Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Lesson?
You can use the outline above to plan your own lesson with your school's support team. If you'd like the teaching materials ready to adapt, our Self-Harm Awareness & Suicide Prevention: Help-Seeking Skills lesson for grades 6–10 brings this sequence together.
It includes editable Google Slides, a two-page student worksheet, teacher instructions and answer keys, printable bin labels, the movement activity, help-seeking role-plays, short videos, and the trusted-people mapping activity. The teacher guide plans for approximately 60 minutes; adjust the pacing with your students' needs in mind.
My goal is for students to leave with words they can use, people they can turn to, and a clear next step when they or a friend need support.
Teach On,
Katie
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