Brief Therapy and Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention counseling and brief therapy are similar in the sense that it is necessary for the counselor or therapist to develop rapport with the person being counseled very quickly in order to offer some relief to the trauma being experienced. At times, a person who is normally psychologically well balanced can have an experience such as sudden death of a loved one, being a victim of a violent crime, being subjected to bullying, being incarcerated in jail, or witnessing a catastrophic event, and that experience has such an impact that it is difficult for the person to adjust. Crisis intervention counseling may involve just one interaction between the counselor and the person being counseled, the purpose being to try to stabilize the person. The source of the crisis often determines what is the appropriate form of counseling given to the person experiencing the crisis. The response to victims of natural disasters such as flood, tornado, or hurricane may be quite different than that which would occur when counseling a recently admitted jail inmate who tried to commit suicide. Brief therapy may be appropriate if a counselor continues to interact with the person on several occasions with the purpose of having the person accept the reality of the new situation and adjust to the new environment. In this chapter, examples of brief therapy and crisis intervention are provided.