Certificate of Crisis Counselling

Unit 1 – Understanding methods of crisis intervention

• Situational crisis
• Existential crisis
• Crisis responses
• Crisis intervention
• Who provides crisis intervention?
• Responding to a crisis
• Problems
• Useful definitions
• Critical incident stress management (CISM)
• Stress debriefing
• Psychological debriefing
• Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD)
• Law enforcement personnel and CISD
• Criticisms of psychological debriefing and CISD

Unit 2 – Ethical, professional and legal issues

• Professional responsibilities
• Conflicts of interest
• Duty of care
• Sexual exploitation
• Group counselling
• Diminished capacity
• Cultural issues and respect
• Client records and confidentiality
• Dual relationships
• Professional consultation
• Professional and specialist skills
• Supporting people who are grieving
• Suicide
• Dealing with anger
• Termination and referral
• Dependency
• Ending the counselling process

Unit 3 – Dangers during crisis and effective intervention

• Transference and counter-transference
• Teenage crisis
• Suicide
• Types of suicide
• Suicide intervention
• Professional ethics and suicide
• Suicide and autonomy
• Risks to the professional
• Case study – South Asian Tsunami
• Debriefing the debriefer

Unit 4 – Developmental crises

• Situational crises
• Erikson’s Psychological Stated of development model
• Model stages
• Teenagers in crisis
• Causes of teenage crisis
• Interventions
• Children coping with disaster and crisis
• Grief and children
• Developmental stages
• Preparing a child for death
• Sudden deaths
• After a death
• Childhood responses to grief
• Supporting a grieving child
• What is ok and what is not ok
• Children with serious problems with loss and grief
• Grief as a unique adolescent experience
• Differences in grief

Unit 5 – Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Common symptoms of PTSD
• Treatment of PTSD
• Avoidance
• Types of PTSD
• Components of PTSD treatment

Unit 6 – Violence and sexual assault

• Responses to assault
• Sexual assault trauma syndrome
• Assault grief
• Male survivors of sexual assault
• Stalking
• Pursuit behaviour
• False stalking syndrome
• Sexual abuse counselling
• Violent attacks
• How violence can affect the victim
• Terrorist attacks

Unit 7 – Crisis and drug addiction

• Traumatic effects that lead to drug abuse
• Why people use drugs
• Symptoms
• Men, depression and substance abuse
• Disasters and substance abuse or dependence
• PTSD and alcohol abuse
• Effect treatment patterns
• Mental health issues

Unit 8 – Family crisis

• Child abuse
• Triggers of abuse
• Stranger abusers
• Transitions
• Grandparenthood
• PTSD and the family

Unit 9 – Crisis and cultural issues

• Are counselling and therapy culture-bound?
• Culture shock
• Dealing with cultural change
• Crisis intervention
• Traumatic stress reactions
• Recovery process
• Behaviours