Chapter 14
CRISIS COUNSELING
AND ASSESSING SUICIDE POTENTIAL
How can integrating the microskills with counseling theory help you and your clients?
Chapter 14, Crisis Counseling and Assessing Suicide Potential, shows how to use
microskills in a crisis counseling session. Following this is a brief discussion of
This enables counselors and therapists to engage in a variety of interviewing styles,
giving you and your clients more alternatives for intentional, effective action.
CHAPTER GOALS
Awareness, knowledge, skills, and actions developed through the concepts of this chapter
will enable you to:
INTRODUCTION
The objective of this chapter is to address two challenging issues that your students and
professionals will encounter in their helping career. Frontline workers are usually the first
to be called when it comes to crises and the potential of suicide. Experienced
professionals frequently come in later, so it is essential that all of us are ready to help
when we are needed.
OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER AND MINDTAP SUPPORT
DEFINING CRISIS COUNSELING
Crises are part of everybody’s lives. This section defines crisis and reviews the team
approach to crises. Mary’s example illustrates main concepts. The important point here is
to prepare for crises.
DISCERNING SPECIFICS OF CRISIS COUNSELING
Key aspects of crisis counseling reviewed here are normalizing, calming and caring,
assuring safety, taking action, debriefing the story, and follow-up. Resilience is also
emphasized. The last part of the section focuses on the implications for the counselor or
OBSERVING CRISIS COUNSELING IN ACTION
The Angelina and Dalisay transcript illustrates crisis counseling in action. The session
shows what might happen in helping a family deal with the loss of their apartment after a
fire.
SUICIDE WATCH: AWARENESS BASICS
Basics of suicide and suicide data as well as assessment of risks and strengths and
PRACTICING CRISIS COUNSELING
Several exercises to practice crisis counseling are presented in this section. These
exercises can be completed in class or after.
List of MindTap resources available for this section:
1. Case Study: Minority Experience in Counseling Training. Supervisor/Employee
Conflict in Japan—Will I Be Fired? A good case to review: What are the issues? How
would you help? How would you use the basics of crisis counseling and brief
counseling to help the client?
4. Group Practice Exercise: Review and Discuss. Use this exercise to discuss brief
counseling.
REFINING THE SKILLS OF CRISIS COUNSELING AND SUICIDE RISK
Crises are part of the work of counselors and therapists. Advancing competencies is
central to provide effective help to those facing the challenge of a crisis or feeling
suicidal. Also important is to work on helping students to prevent burnout.
DEMONSTRATIONS AND VIDEOS
• Sommers-Flannagan, J., & Sommers-Flannagan, R. (2012). Clinical Interviewing, (4th
ed.). New York: Wiley, provides a good discussion on crisis counseling and suicide
prevention.
• Mary Bradford Ivey’s new video Counseling Children presents two complete interviews,
one of about 15 minutes with a sixth grader and another of about 10 with a first grader.
Both focus clearly on listening skills.
• There are several organizations that offer good media and other resources on the topic of
suicide. Here is a brief list:
• American Association of Suicidology, http://www.suicidology.org/resources-
links-of-interest
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Best Practices Registry for Suicide
• Mental Health – Mental Illness – Suicide Prevention Resources
dmh.mo.gov/mentalillness/suicide/links.htm
• Metanoia: online therapy, www.metanoia.org/suicide
• NASP – Suicide Prevention and Intervention Resources,
www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/suicide-resources.aspx
www.blogs.va.gov/…/va-resources-for-preventing-stress-and-suicide
• VA. Mini Clinic-Suicide Prevention | VA Community Provider Toolkit,
www.mentalhealth.va.gov › Home › Mental Health And Wellness
The American Association of Suicidology offer the following suggestions for choosing
educational videos regarding suicide (from
http://www.suicidology.org/resources/recommended-videos)
How to choose an Educational Video:
Teaching young people how to help a friend is an important part of a comprehensive
school-based suicide prevention strategy. Educational videos that teach basic suicide
Look For:
•Videos that teach, model, and emphasize developmentally appropriate help-giving and
help-seeking behaviors and that provide information on finding help. The focus should
be on How to Respond or How to Get Help. In-house resources and local crisis
numbers should be highlighted along with instruction.
•Videos that emphasize prevention and teach students that suicide is preventable. We
want to reinforce the idea that there are preventative actions students can take to help
protect themselves and their friends.
•Avoid videos that primarily depict previously depressed or suicidal youth describing
their depression and/or suicidal behavior. This can inadvertently glorify or romanticize
suicidal thinking and behavior.
•Avoid videos in which the primary focus is on someone who has died by suicide.
CLASS PROCEDURES
The following procedures have been written as if this chapter is treated holistically and each
theoretical orientation is reviewed.
1. Use appropriate information from the sources listed above to introduce the topic covered in
2. Crisis Counseling. It is useful to develop a typical microtraining session around a crisis faced
by somebody who wants to volunteer such information. Encourage sharing to the extent the
volunteer feels comfortable. Using the five-steps outlined in our model to guide the session.
a. Introduction/warm-up. Provide the students with a brief explanation of the concept.
You may wish to assign basic readings on crisis intervention and suicide prevention