Question Description: An important aspect of understanding and recognizing effective crisis skills and characteristics is being able to critically reflect on your own working session or the observation of another’s session. This reflection helps you to evaluate which characteristics and skills are present, which you need to develop, and which you need to expand to the next level. As a practitioner, you can make observations of what was successful and unsuccessful in the session and then make adjustments to your own practice. Identifying skills and characteristics that are less effective and reflecting on how to improve them can help you ultimately be more effective in treating survivors of critical incidents.

For this Assignment, complete the interactive media piece titled Crisis Counseling Competence, Part 1. View the media segment Crisis Counseling Competence, Part 2. Think about how ineffective crisis treatment techniques can negatively affect a client. Select three examples of actions the practitioner could have/should have done differently and consider why you chose each.

The Assignment (3–4 pages):

Briefly describe the three examples you selected and why you chose each. Include the effects each example had on the client and what you would have done differently in each instance.
Explain any insights you gained or conclusions you drew from completing the interactive segment.
Describe two strengths of crisis treatment (in terms of skills and characteristics) that you believe you possess. Provide specific examples to illustrate.
Select two crisis treatment skills and/or characteristics that you believe you can and should improve or acquire. Explain why you believe these are important.
Explain what steps you would take to develop the characteristics and/or skills that you should acquire or improve.
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are required to provide a reference list and to appropriately cite, in APA style, all references used within your Assignment.

Answer preview

Thirdly, a crisis counselor who digresses and starts talking about personal encounters instead of focusing on the client’s issues is ineffective during the sessions. I chose this example because it conveys how a self-centered crisis counselor fails to meet clients’ needs. As professionals, such counselors refrain from putting the clients’ interests at heart, yet this is crucial. In my position, I would act with the utmost professionalism by portraying my commitment to clients, which the NASW (1996) code of ethics reinforces. Generally, social workers, including counselors, have the ethical responsibility of promoting clients’ wellbeing, being supportive, and sensitive to their feelings.

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