Stigmatised Skin: A Qualitative Exploration of the Lived Experience of Psychological Professionals with Self-Harm Scars

Self-harm scars (SHS) are permanent and often visible markers of past distress. While research has explored their meaning within service-user and community populations, psychological professionals’ lived experience of having SHS within professional contexts remains underexplored. In mental health services, practitioners are expected to embody stability and containment, and SHS may be construed as in conflict with these ideas.

This study explored how psychological professionals with lived experience of self-harm make sense of their scars within their professional lives. Nine psychological professionals working in mental health services in the UK participated in semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis generated six group experiential themes: institutional silence and lack of guidance; scars as bad, inappropriate or harmful; navigating visibility; the impact of power and hierarchy; professional legitimacy and divided identity; and yearning for compassionate systems.

Participants described SHS as associated with assumptions of instability or unprofessionalism. Visibility was negotiated within systems characterised by silence, variable norms, and evaluative hierarchies. Concealment was experienced as protective but laborious. Shame was frequently described as relational and embodied, intensified by professional cultures that maintain an implicit divide between service-users and clinicians. In contrast, compassionate supervision, representation, and open dialogue were described as validating and supportive.

Findings highlight the need for guidance, training, and organisational cultures that address stigma surrounding SHS in professional contexts. Future research should explore service-user perspectives on professionals having SHS and evaluate organisational interventions. More broadly, the study suggests that responsibility for managing visibility should shift from the individual to professional systems that support embodied histories of distress alongside competence and care.