Abstract

This study was conducted by applying Selby and Joiner (2009)’s Emotional Cascade Model to the phenomenon of non-suicidal self-injury of adolescents, focusing on the school counselor’s counseling experience. To this end, a focus group interview(FGI) was conducted with 56 counselors who had experience in counseling self-injured adolescents, and this study applied Braun and Clake’s thematic analysis(2012). As a result, 8 categories and 16 subtopics were derived: ‘negative emotional experience’, ‘maladaptive cognitive emotional dysregulation strategy’, ‘experience of emotional cascade’, ‘temporary relief of psychological pain’, ‘aggravation of the emotional cascade state’, ‘emotional pain from nonsuicidal self-injury’, ‘vicious cycle of nonsuicidal self-injury’ and ‘difficulty in controlling behavior that co-occurs with nonsuicidal self-injury’. These results are significant in expanding the understanding regarding the non-suicidal self-injury of adolescents through the perspective of school counselors who are in a position to consider the various systems surrounding adolescents in an integrated manner. Based on the research results, implications, limitations and future research were discussed.