Lesson Structure: Crisis Counselling BPS304

There are 9 lessons:

1. Understanding methods of crisis intervention
   • What constitutes a crisis and methods of crisis intervention?
2. Ethical, professional, and legal issues
   • Current ethical, professional, and legal implications of crisis intervention.
3. Dangers of crisis and effective intervention
   • Dangers posed by crises to the individual, the counsellor, and those around them. Determining effective modes of intervention.
4. Developmental Crisis
   • Recognising and comprehending crisess from a developmental perspective.
5. Post-traumatic stress disorder
   • Symptoms, treatment options, and possible outcomes of post-traumatic stress disorder.
6. Violence and sexual assault
   • Effects of violence and sexual assault on the individual, and possible modes of intervention.
7. Crisis and drug addiction
   • Determining the relationship between crisis and drug dependence.
8. Family crisis
   • Major issues raised in a family crisis and appropriate methods of intervention.
9. Crises and cultural issues
   • Cultural influences on crisis situations.

Learning Goals: Crisis Counselling BPS304

• Identify what constitutes a crisis and to discuss methods of crisis intervention
• Discuss current ethical, professional and legal implications of crisis intervention.
• Explain the dangers posed by crises to the individual, the counsellor and those around them during crisis intervention, and to determine effective modes of intervention.
• Identify and explain crises evolving from a developmental perspective.
• Explain the symptoms, treatment options, and possible outcomes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
• Describe the effect of violence and sexual assault on the individual and possible modes of intervention.
• Explain the relationship between crises and drug dependence.
• Discuss the major issues that arise in family crises and appropriate methods of intervention.
• Discuss cultural influences on crisis situations.

Practicals:

• Role play a critical incident debriefing session
• Familiarise yourself with a Counselling Association Code of Conduct
• Interview a counsellor from a community mental health service in your area
• View videos or films, read or listen to stories (where possible) about personal or family crisis
• Discuss post-traumatic stress disorder with a community mental health worker
• Explore physical, emotional, cognitive and social responses to sexual assault or violence
• Examine the relationship between trauma and drugs
• Interview or observe people from other cultures to identify cultural and sub-cultural responses to crises
• Explore how sub-cultural groups may require different counselling approaches
• Consider various methods of crisis intervention.

What Is A Crisis?

A crisis is a period of transition in the life of the individual, family or group, presenting individuals with a turning point in their lives, which may be seen as a challenge or a threat, a “make or break” new possibility or risk, a gain or a loss, or both simultaneously.

Most crises are part of the normal range of life experiences that most people can expect, and most people will recover from crisis without professional intervention. However, there are crises outside the bounds of a person’s everyday experience or coping resources which may require expert help to achieve recovery.

A crisis can refer to any situation in which the individual perceives a sudden loss in their ability to problem solve and to cope.  These may include natural disasters, sexual assault, criminal victimisation, mental illness, suicidal thoughts, homicide, a drastic change in relationships and so on.

Therefore, in terms of mental health, a crisis does not necessarily refer to a traumatic situation or event. It is the person’s reaction to an event. One person may be deeply affected by an event, whilst another does not suffer.

The Chinese word for crisis presents a good depiction of the components of a crisis, both the positive opportunity for growth or decline and the negative idea of danger.  We often think of a crisis as an unexpected disaster, such as car loss and so on, but crisis can vary in their type and severity.

Crises in the Life Cycle – Sometimes a crisis is predicted in terms of a predictable part of the life cycle.  An example of this is Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. (We will look at Erikson in more detail in lesson 4).

Situational Crises – Such as natural disasters, accidents etc.

Existential Crises – Inner conflicts relating to the way we want to live our life, our purpose, spirituality and so on.

There are many different definitions of crisis –

“an upset in equilibrium at the failure of one’s traditional problem solving approach which results in disorganization, hopelessness, sadness, confusion and panic” (Lillibridge and Klukken, 1978)

“People are in a state of crisis when they face an obstacle to important life goals – and obstacle that is, for a time, insurmountable by the use of customary methods of problem-solving” (Caplan, 1961)

“..crisis is a perception or experience of an event or situation as an intolerable difficulty that exceeds the person’s current resources and coping mechanisms” (James and Gilliland, 2001)

“Crisis. An acute emotional reaction to a powerful stimulus or demand. A state of emotional turmoil. Three characteristics of crisis: The usual balance between thinking and emotions is disturbed; the usual coping mechanisms fail; there is evidence of impairment in the individual or group involved in the crisis” (Jeffrey T. Mitchell, PhD)

Activity

Think about crises and write down as many as you can think of. Use your own life, newspapers, internet, media, friend’s and so on. You do not need to submit this to your tutor, but by the end of this exercise, you should find that you have quite a list, ranging from severe to relatively minor crises. However, as we said earlier, it is not the actual event that causes the problem, but the person’s reaction to that problem.  As you work through the course, you may find other crises to add to this list.

Responses to Crisis

Response to crisis is very individual, and people’s reaction to crisis can be influenced by many factors, including:

• The type and severity of the crisis
• Previous experience in personal crisis
• Availability of emotional support
• Ability to do self-care activities.

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