The crisis intervention counselor provides a tremendous service to their fellow human beings by helping some of the most vulnerable members of society survive one of the most difficult challenges life can present.
This is a huge boon to families, individuals and society by helping clients work through the most difficult emotional situations imaginable so they can stabilize and begin their long term healing process. Impact on Society The Public Policy Consultant can impact their community in a variety of ways such as:. Impact on the Individual The crisis intervention counselor performs a critical function for those who are suffering from an acute mental health crisis by providing stability and coping mechanisms during the darkest hour of their clients lives.
Have you had a chance to eat since you arrived here? You and your children are going together soon to a shelter with cots, blankets, food and clothing. Do you have any questions now? It is important for me to think out and plan my response with cultural respect and sensitivity, guiding my level of eye contact, touch and personal space by cultural norms. Cultural sensitivity is a central element in working with survivors of a disaster or crisis, Webber says.
She offers some advice along those lines to her fellow counselors: Avoid generalizations and stereotypes; adapt disaster response models to the cultural, familial, linguistic, political and community context; understand cultural factors that figure into risk, resilience, coping and PTSD diagnosis; and recognize cultural and spiritual distinctions in grief, suffering and mourning.
Counselors will generally work in two- or three-week rotations at a disaster site, which means their assistance to survivors is short term. That makes connecting clients to long-term support a key function. To effectively set up clients with support, Dufrene says counselors must familiarize themselves with the systems they are working in, whether that means the responding organization such as the American Red Cross or the community and cultural systems of the clients.
Truly understanding those systems will allow counselors to better connect survivors with available resources and support, she says. Once the immediate aftermath of a crisis or disaster has passed, the hope is that basic safety will be secured and a sense of normalcy will return. At that point, or even further down the road, survivors might seek out counselors for more traditional therapeutic assistance. Dubi points to cognitive behavior therapy CBT as one method of assisting clients.
The idea behind CBT, he says, is that what people tell themselves and how they think in turn affects how they feel. Neurobiological approaches using eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing EMDR and Brainspotting, as well as evidence-based trauma approaches such as emotion-focused trauma therapy, can also be helpful to clients, Webber says.
Each approach requires that counselors have training, supervised practice and protocols in place, she emphasizes. Dubi describes EMDR as a type of exposure technique that helps to desensitize a person or alter how he or she reacts to the traumatic memory. With training, a counselor can guide the client in bringing up the memory, and through repeated bilateral stimulations, the client slowly desensitizes, reducing the level of stress when recalling the memory.
When people go through a crisis, they often operate on autopilot and fail to process their feelings, Brennan says.
As time passes, clients might need to tell their story repeatedly until they can fully absorb it into their psyches. With children and some adults, it can be helpful to have them draw what they saw as another way to access those memories, she says. Webber says counselors still need to broaden their research base to determine which techniques work best. She acknowledges, however, the difficulty in studying the effectiveness of techniques in a relatively uncontrolled and at times chaotic work environment.
It can be equally hard to follow up on the effectiveness of techniques after individuals and families have left the disaster area or shelter. Attending to children and adolescents who have endured a disaster or crisis requires a unique perspective, says Gail Roaten, an assistant professor and coordinator of the school counseling program at Texas State University.
Children who survive a crisis are unquestionably affected, but Roaten says new research is indicating that kids who simply observe a crisis, whether in person or on television, internalize more than was previously thought.
The reaction to a crisis might appear different with each individual child, Roaten emphasizes, but general reactions among children can include seeming confused or numb, feeling helpless or hopeless, feeling afraid for their safety, seeming in a fog, seeking to retell the story of the experience, acting out, experiencing headaches or stomachaches, and fearing a recurrence of the event.
Many of the same symptoms will show with adolescents, Roaten says, although they may also feel embarrassed by these fears and try to mask them and pretend everything is fine. In the early stages after a crisis or disaster, it is paramount to provide kids with a sense of safety and to meet their basic needs, says Roaten, who is a member of ACA. After that, debriefing groups can sometimes be beneficial, she says, allowing the kids a chance to process what happened and talk about the facts.
If no one talks about the crisis or offers an explanation, children sometimes come up with far-fetched ideas and might even assume personal responsibility for whatever occurred, she says. Sand tray therapy, play therapy and art therapy are among the effective options for helping kids work through their experiences, she says.
She adds that play therapy supports children in developing new neural pathways, helping their brains to heal. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Crisis Counseling. Assessing the Situation. Offering Support. Coping Skills. The Best Online Therapy Programs We've tried, tested and written unbiased reviews of the best online therapy programs including Talkspace, Betterhelp, and Regain. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up.
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Employers of crisis counselors include schools, substance abuse treatment centers, hospitals, crisis phone lines and social service agencies. Each setting requires special abilities and skills. Many times, a client may stir up painful memories from your own past. Effective crisis counselors are aware of their own triggers and have spent time in counseling or other self-awareness programs to process personal experiences. A good crisis counselor can empathize with clients without becoming personally involved or emotional when subjects that have personal meaning come up.
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