A personal construct model of crisis intervention counseling for adult clients

Crisis intervention counseling is an effective intervention with adults for which there is great need. Seven critical aspects of crisis are described: its triggering events and timing, the emotions of crisis, the individual differences in responses to crisis triggering events, disassociation in crisis, the stages of crisis resolution,bad and good outcomes and the importance of social support to crisis resolution. Some personal construct concepts of relevance to crisis intervention counseling ore described. These include personal construct psychology as a theory of change, transition and emotion, the creativity cycle, and validation and invalidation. Personal construct accounts of crisis, of the person in crisis, and of psychotherapy are also provided. A framework for a model of crisis intervention counseling based on these concepts is then described, using the seven aspects of crisis. The implications of this personal construct model for practice and research, together with same of the weaknesses and strengths of the model, are examined.