Key Goals for Crisis Counselors: Supporting Clients Through Trauma

As the name implies, crisis counselors help people through a trauma. Whether dealing with large or small crises, the primary goals of a crisis counselor are the same. Crisis counselors provide education, guidance and support for a short period to help clients weather a disaster.

Coping Strategies

• During times of crisis, people's coping mechanisms automatically kick into action. It is the goal of the crisis counselor to identify those mechanisms, help the survivor understand his behaviors and provide strategies to help him come through the situation.

Assistance

• A crisis counselor determines the client's immediate needs and provides information about resources that are available. It could be financial aid, housing or ways to locate relatives. If a crisis counselor thinks additional emotional counseling is needed, the counselor would refer the client to the appropriate facilities and agencies.

Short-term Intervention

• Crisis counselors focus on giving short-term aid and work with individuals or groups who are in the midst of an unexpected disaster. The crisis counselor's goal is to use psycho-educational modalities to help restore victims to their pre-disaster levels of functioning. Because it is short-term intervention, the crisis counselor works in the community, going to the victim rather than the victim visiting an office.

Assess Survivors

• It is the goal of the crisis counselor to assess the person in need as quickly as possible. This assessment includes recognizing the person's culture, developmental stage, education and experience. The crisis counselor does not have, or need, the time to do a psychological evaluation of the person or focus on long-term psycho-therapeutic intervention.