Couples therapy takes on suicide: a new approach targets both emotions and relationships

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Patients have either engaged in 2+ suicidal or non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors in the past two weeks (i.e., chronic and recent SITBs, consistent with previous research evaluating non-suicidal self-injury (Kranzler et al., 2018)), or have severe suicidal ideation as indicated by a score ≥15 on the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (Beck, 1991) 2. Patients also meet diagnostic criteria for BPD 3. Patients are between the ages of 18 and 70 years-old 4. Patients have a romantic partner who is between the ages of 18 and 70 years-old 5. Patient's romantic partner is willing to participate in the study with them Exclusion Criteria: 1. Past-year severe intimate aggression in their relationship such that participants who endorse any severe physical and/or sexual assault behaviors in the past year will be excluded from the study (Monson et al., 2012; Abramowitz et al., 2013), as assessed by the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, Severe Items Subscale (CTS-2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, \& Sugarman, 1996) 2. Either partner has a severe substance use disorder that would interfere with the capacity to attend and participate in this study 3. Either partner has clinically significant psychotic symptoms or bipolar I disorder (e.g., McMain et al., 2018; McMain et al., 2009) 4. Either partner has a major cognitive or intellectual impairment that would prevent the individual's ability to attend intervention and participate in the research study 5. Either partner has illiteracy in English language 6. Either partner is unable or unwilling to download and use a mobile application on their smart phone to complete daily Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) measures 7. If partners meet inclusion criterion #1, or #2, or meet the self-harm/suicidal behaviour diagnostic criterion for BPD. 8. If either partner of the couple is unwilling to have assessments and sessions audio or videorecorded 9. If either partner is currently not residing in Ontario