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Crisis Intervention Therapy

Crisis intervention (CI) is a collection of therapeutic techniques designed to lessen the immediate suffering of individuals who are in emotional crisis. It is supportive, directive, and nonjudgmental, with a typical duration of 1-4 sessions. It is applicable to children, adolescents, and adults.

CI is at least partly distinguished from Critical Incident Debriefing by the type of triggering event. A critical event may be a catastrophic occurrence affecting an entire community or region. An emotional crisis is more often due to an event specific to an individual or a family, in which the victim is at a loss to apply effective solutions or coping skills. Examples include rape, assault or related criminal victimization; illness (including mental illness); death of a loved one, and divorce.

Purpose

CI has many possible goals; e.g., to reduce immediate emotional suffering; to improve level of functioning; to develop a plan for handling the difficulty; to develop a plan for preventing the difficulty from recurring; to refer for ongoing care; and to prevent reactions such as suicide, violence, substance abuse, mental illness, or extreme withdrawal.

CI is not long-term psychotherapy. It is not designed to solve all the difficulties that may become evident during the assessment phase for the problem. As indicated, a referral for additional treatment is often recommended once the initial phase of CI has been implemented and the triggering situation is free of volatility and threat.