Crisis Intervention

Twenty first century pressures often produce difficult and traumatic events. Natural disaster (earthquake), sexual or physical assault, loss or changes in relationships (death of a loved one, divorce or job loss) can cause a crisis.

What is a Crisis?

A crisis is an experience or an event that produces mental, emotional, physical and behavioral distress or problems. People in a crisis seem to lose their problem-solving skills, the ability to exercise normal coping techniques and need help to learn new mechanisms that will work for them during a difficult time in their lives.

Crisis interventions are methods used to offer immediate, short-term help to individuals experiencing feelings of helplessness and confusion.

Crisis Intervention is Usually Short-term

Reactions to crisis include fear, anger, and grief, difficulty concentrating or nightmares. Sleep and appetite may be affected. When your current coping techniques do not resolve your crisis, an experienced therapist can help.

Therapy to Alleviate Crisis Reactions

Your therapist will begin with an assessment of what happened and your individual responses to the event. Therapy will make you aware of some of your feelings, including fear, anger, and guilt.

A major focus of crisis intervention is learning to explore new coping strategies, new techniques such as relaxation, stress management and new ways of problem solving.

You and your therapist will work toward finding a solution and developing a plan to relieve your stress, produce a positive, lasting outcome and devise a realistic plan for the future so you will be able to cope with difficult life events more effectively.

Contact CPS Today

When you need professional help to cope with a crisis, call our Encino office at (818) 907-7974. Arrange a confidential session with a trained psychotherapist to help you deal with the helplessness and confusion you are experiencing.