Crisis Management Counseling

At different points in life, most people experience some kind of crisis. A crisis is defined as a situation or event in which a person feels overwhelmed or has difficulty coping. A crisis might be caused by an event such as the death of a family member, the loss of a job, or the ending of a relationship. During such times people experience a wide range of feelings, and each person’s response to a crisis is different. It is normal to feel frightened, anxious, or depressed at such a time. Crisis counseling involves providing support and guidance to an individual or a group of people such as a family or community during a crisis. The purpose of crisis counseling is to decrease emotional pain, provide emotional support, make sure that the person in crisis is safe, and help develop a plan for coping with the situation. Sometimes it also involves connecting a person to other community or health services that can provide long-term support.

Goals of Crisis counseling

• To ensure safety and promote overall stability

• To provide emotional support to the individual

• To solve problems and assists the individual in obtaining available resources

• To restore equilibrium to their bio-psycho-social functioning and minimize the potential for long term trauma

Types of Crisis

1. Developmental crisis- These occur as a part of the process of growing and developing through various periods of life.

2. Existential crisis- Inner conflicts related to things such as life purpose, direction and spirituality. A midlife crisis one the examples of a crisis that is often rooted in existential anxiety

3. Situational crisis- Situational crisis often revolve around grief and loss. These events may originate in the physical body as a result of disease or injury or social or in emotional situations, such as the loss of job, divorce, mental illness, death of a child, move to another locality, failure in school, etc.

4. Maturational crisis- Maturational crisis often occurs during the predictable transitions of individuals experience as they move from one stage of human development to another. Which includes: adolescence, marriage, midlife and retirement.

Signs of Crisis

• Changes in weight

• Decreased performance at school or work

• Dramatic shifts in sleep habits

• Neglect of personal hygiene

• Sudden changes in mood

• Withdrawal from normal activities

• Suicidal thoughts

• Self-injury

• Alcohol or substance abuse

• Emotional disturbance

• Anxiety and depression

• Paranoid thinking

• Jaw, shoulder, back or neck pain

• Muscle tension, fatigue, cold hands and feet’s, sweaty palms

• Shortness of breath and chest pain

• Increased conflict and arguing

• Job instability related to conflict with co-worker.