Crisis Counseling
Appointment Description
Crisis counseling is a 60-minute appointment that addresses the emotional, psychological, and biological factors associated with extreme fight or flight responses.
Prolonged coping with intense stressors, as well as experiencing an overwhelming or shocking event can promote a crisis response. A crisis response can be paralyzing due to overwhelm or exhaustion and often requires the individual to incorporate supportive assistance to restore a sense of well-being.
Traumatic events—such as an accident, assault, military combat, or natural disaster—can have lasting effects on a person’s mental health. Some will develop longer-term symptoms that can lead to Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Recognizing PTSD Symptoms
- Re-experiencing type symptoms such as recurring, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories, which can include flashbacks of the trauma, bad dreams, and intrusive thoughts.
- Avoidance, which can include staying away from certain places or objects that are reminders of the traumatic event. A person might actively avoid a place or person that might activate overwhelming symptoms.
- Cognitive and mood symptoms, which can include trouble recalling the event, negative thoughts about one’s self. A person may also feel numb, guilty, worried or depressed and have difficulty remembering the traumatic event. Cognitive symptoms can, in some instances, extend to include out-of-body experiences or feeling that the world is "not real" (derealization).
- Arousal symptoms, such as hypervigilance. Examples might include being intensely startled by stimuli that resembles the trauma, trouble sleeping, or outbursts of anger.
Crisis Counseling
Crisis counseling incorporates customized therapeutic processes to diffuse and repattern problematic behaviors. See the Integrated Counseling tab below to review the list of therapeutic models used.