Short Imagery Rescripting Intervention Effects on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Imagery rescripting intervention has proven effective in reducing PTSD. We developed a four-session short intervention to treat non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors. We aimed to examine whether a short imagery rescripting intervention reduces the level of catastrophizing, emotional dysregulation, depressive and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, and dysfunctional schema modes in non-suicidal self-injurious college students.

Twenty-six college students with experience of non-suicidal self-injury behaviors were recruited for participation. Participants were randomly assigned to complete the short imagery rescripting intervention group (n = 13) or no treatment control group (n = 13) for 4 weeks. The level of catastrophizing, emotional regulation difficulties, depression, and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, and the level of schema modes (vulnerable child, impulsive child, angry child, detached self-soother, detached protector) were assessed before and after the intervention.

The levels of catastrophizing, emotional dysregulation, depression, and the frequency of non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors decreased after the individual short imagery rescripting interventions. The levels of vulnerable child schema mode and impulsive child schema mode decreased after the individual short imagery rescripting interventions.

The individual imagery rescripting intervention was found to reduce the level of cognitive catastrophizing thinking, emotional dysregulation, depression, and the frequency of non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in non-suicidal self-injury college students. These findings suggest that they confirm the efficacy of individual short imagery rescripting interventions in schema therapy, and the individual imagery rescripting intervention will be useful for interventions for non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in adolescents in counseling and psychotherapy setting.