Graphic Lives: Lexi: A Graphic Novel for Young Adults Dealing with Self-Harm

Graphic Lives is a series of highly engaging graphic novels for young people who may need counselling and psychotherapy. Each book introduces the difficulties faced by a teenage character and follows them as they travel on their therapeutic journey with a skilled and creative therapist.

The key aims of these books are

• to demystify counselling and psychotherapy so that it is more appealing and accessible to young people
• to destigmatise emotional and mental health problems so that young people are better able to accept help
• to encourage young people to embark upon their own healing journeys, equipped with the sense that there is a way forward.

Following the traumatic break-up of her parents' marriage, Lexi feels excluded and unloved. Unable to cope with her emotions, she self-harms, cutting herself with a scalpel. When her boyfriend splits up with her the self-harm intensifies until Lexi's sister persuades her to see Steph, the school counsellor. Together they explore some of the experiences that have shaped the way Lexi responds to negative emotions, and though the challenges she faces remain the same, as the therapy continues she learns how to experience those emotions without self-harming.