Crisis therapy
Crisis therapy (also called “Crisis intervention psychotherapy” or CIP) is an underutilized form of therapy that can be offered as a treatment during psychiatric disasters and emergencies. It is an assessment of the crisis situation, stabilization of the person, and assistance in the development of a plan to help them move out of the crisis mode. In crisis intervention, the counselor tries to reduce the crisis impact by immersing him or herself into the client's life and assisting in the development of resources. This involves crisis therapy along a continuum that includes assessment, planning, implementation, and follow-up; the crisis intervention is woven into the context of therapy (Hoff et al., 2009).
Counseling interventions in therapy need to be sensitively timed for the client, because the crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. It is dangerous in that the client may resort to destructive behavior (suicide, homicide), but it is an opportunity because the client may reorganize themselves and their life by reaching out for assistance and thereby developing new knowledge and skills. It is in this development of new knowledge and skills that the counselor can be immeasurably significant in the client's life; this is where therapy can have a long-lasting impact. A well-designed, sensitively timed intervention that is idiosyncratically matched to the individual client and their situation can change a life forever.
Crisis intervention psychotherapy is typically delivered by trained mental health professionals, often in community mental health settings, and it can be offered after disasters. As psychotherapy, it is a problem-focused, solution-oriented, trauma-informed treatment, utilizing an individual or systemic/family-centered approach. This brief psychotherapy is designed to resolve the crisis and restore daily functioning.
Caplan formulated a very simple definition of crisis in which he said that a crisis was 'an upset in a steady state' (in Rapoport 1962, p.212). The notion of a steady state seems to imply that the person was managing, at least relatively successfully prior to the crisis and that the crisis event had the effect of shifting the person into an unsteady state. In this state she finds that she is no longer able to cope. In a discussion of change and crisis this poses some very interesting possibilities. One of the well documented benefits of crisis therapy is the impetus for change that is created by having to face a crisis. So we need to ask three questions:
a) Who needs to change?
b) What needs to change?
c) Change to what?
Asking these questions can help to formulate a clearer picture of what change needs to happen and also who or what needs to change.
Geri Miller. (2011). Fundamentals of crisis counseling. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/wpdqhx
Feinstein, R. E. (2021). Crisis intervention psychotherapy in the age of COVID-19. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 27 (3), p.152-163. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/itzckk
Hilda Loughran. (2011). Understanding crisis therapies: An integrative approach to crisis intervention and post traumatic stress. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/byccjh