Psychological counselling in crisis

Study level: Graduate study programme in psychology
Lecturers: Lidija Arambašić, Ph.D.
ECTS: 4
Language: Croatian
Semester: 2nd (summer)
Status: elective
Form of instruction with class hours: 30 hours of lectures, 15 hours of seminars
Prerequisites: Theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy; advantage will be given to students who took Psychology of trauma
Student evaluation: Oral exam.

Course description

The nature of crisis. Psychological crisis intervention and vulnerability circles. Psychological crisis intervention in community. Critical incident stress debriefing: group and individual support. Basic skills necessary for counselling clients in crisis. Effectiveness of psychological crisis interventions and critical incident stress debriefing. Psychological difficulties of professionals who work with people in crisis.

Course objectives

Students will gain knowledge of goals and models of psychological crisis intervention. They will be able to review critically qualities and limitations of crisis intervention processes. They will learn assessment process in different environments which leads to interventions and process of planning therapeutic interventions. Students will be senzibilized to the need of providing psychological support for professionals included in crisis interventions.

Required readings

1. Arambašić, L. (ur.) (2000.) Psihološke krizne intervencije, Društvo za psihološku pomoć, Zagreb.
2. Arambašić, L. (2012.). Psihološka prva pomoć nakon kriznih događaja: vodič kroz psihološke krizne intervencije u zajednici, Naklada Slap, Jastrebarsko.
3. Everly, G.S. (ur.) (1995.). Innovations in disaster and trauma psychology, Volume one: Applications in emergency services and disaster response, Chevron Publishing Corp., Maryland.

Recommended readings
1. Arambašić, L. (2005). Gubitak, tugovanje, podrška, Jastrebarsko: Naklada "Slap".
2. Brock, S.E., Sandoval, J. i Lewis, S. (2001.). Preparing for crisis in the schools: A manual for building school response teams, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
3. Dattilio, F.M. i Freeman, A. (ur.) (2007.). Cognitive-behavioral strategies in crisis intervention, The Guilford Press, New York
4. Everly, G.S. i Mitchell, J.T. (1996.). Critical incident stress debriefing: An operations manual for the prevention of traumatic stress among emergency services and disaster workers, Chevron Publishing Corp., Maryland.
5. Roberts, A.R. (2000.). Crisis intervention handbook: Assessment, treatment and research, Oxford University Press.