Cutting voices. Self-injury in three adolescent girls.

1. Adolescent girls with a trauma history discover that violence, in the form of cutting themselves, heeds a response from others when others do not listen to their speaking voices. 2. Cutting may begin as an effort to communicate psychological distress and a plea for relationship but becomes a developmental pathway to cutting as a form of regulating unbearable affect, indicating the need for early intervention. 3. Adults actively and genuinely listening to girls is a critical component for both prevention and intervention of cutting.