Even experienced clinicians get anxious when assessing a client for suicidality. After all, the stakes are high and the task is daunting. Trying to definitively determine the client's potential for self-harm, we can too easily find ourselves focusing exclusively on risk factors: How hopeless is he? Has she made prior attempts? Does he have easy access to weapons? Is she experiencing command hallucinations? Such therapeutic tunnel vision can produce an interaction with the client that more closely resembles a police interrogation than a therapeutic interview, and it can compromise the validity of the information we gather. To thoroughly assess the level of risk, we need to understand it within the context of the client's resources (resilience and possibilities for change) and his or her personal relationships. In this workshop, the presenter will introduce a systemic guide for exploring both the dangers and potentials in the interior and social worlds of the suicidal client, offering a relational map for negotiating uncertain territory and for making anxiety-provoking choices regarding client safety.