First key concept: Signal is what you hear

Everything you hear coming from the other person is ‘signal’, there’s no better way to find out what’s meaningful than tuning in to their words.

It may seem obvious, but to do this well is actually incredibly advanced. If someone ever told you about a bad day and you gave them unsolicited advice, you were not tuned in to their signal! Listening to signal is a very unnatural and challenging thing, which makes a chat with suicide prevention workers feel so different than others (like therapists).

To really tune in to signal, you’ve got to develop deep levels of acceptance, self awareness and non-judgement, so you can put aside all the ‘noise’.

Second key concept: Noise is what you think

Noise is everything coming from inside you; thoughts, personal triggers, opinions, value judgements, all the stuff which can get in the way during suicide prevention.

This noise happens all the time, for everyone. It’s a perfectly normal and natural part of relating to someone, yet in crisis support it’s often the reason your support doesn’t feel valuable or effective. Maybe you’re;

• In your head about what to say
• Feeling personally ‘pulled in’, wanting to ‘help’ or let them know you relate
• Not sure how to connect if you can’t share opinions

Every time you have a problem making a connection or empathy doesn’t ‘hit right’, there’s a noise vs signal problem. The noise which feels like it should be helpful, isn’t.

What do you do with ‘noise’?

Put it aside.

Over time you will develop a stronger intuition, but to start with it’s a much more effective way to learn suicide prevention to simply put your own feelings, thoughts and judgements aside.

Focus on what the other person is SAYING (aka the signal) and if you need help or a second opinion, ask your supervisor!