The dealing with suicide demands from the psychotherapist a watchful look at the risk factors and aspects related to death and human despair. The objective of this article is to offer possibilities of instrumentation to the psychotherapist with clients in suicidal crisis, providing thinking on suicide, about some procedures and strategies used in psychotherapy, both in relation to the prevention and posvention of suicide. The method used was a literature review of studies that took place in Brazil and in the USA regarding the theme of suicide, as well as the experience of 20 years in dealing with clients in suicidal crisis. Although the act of killing itself should be seen as a public health problem, it is considered that one of the ways of preventing the suicide is to comprehend and see the suicidal person as a unique being and that its numerous motivations for such behavior belong to the private domain.
suicide; suicide prevention; psychotherapy; self-destructive behavior; suicidology