How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 10

This book is in B&W, not color - Print page in Grayscale for Correct view! Chapter 2 Definition of “Personal Crisis” A personal crisis is defined as an intensive behavioral, emotional, or psychiatric situation which, if left untreated, could result in an emergency situation, in the placement of the person in a more restrictive, less clinically appropriate setting, including, but not limited to, inpatient hospitalization or at the very least, significantly reduce levels of functioning in primary activities of daily living. "A personal crisis can be thought of as a system out of balance. Normally, all of us maintain our state of equilibrium on a day-to-day basis without too much trouble. Obstacles are overcome because we've learned good coping skills to re-establish equilibrium after some event has temporarily knocked us off balance. Personal crises occur when the balance cannot be regained, even though we are trying very hard to correct the problem.” Types of personal crisis Two Different types of personal crisis occur. One is a developmental crisis, like a job change, retirement, having a baby, your baby turns 14. The other is a situational crisis like rape, robbery, sudden death, or being diagnosed with a chronic or terminal disease. With regards to a situational crisis, the cause is often defined as a “Critical Incident”. A Critical Incident is any event that has an impact sufficient enough to overwhelm the usually effective coping skills of either an individual or even a group. Critical incidents are typically sudden, powerful events that are outside of the range of a person’s ordinary experiences. Because they are so sudden and unusual, they can have a strong emotional effect. If the critical incident is extreme in nature, it may serve as the starting point for the psychiatric disorder called “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Critical Incident Stress services help mitigate this possibility. Critical Incident Stress (CIS) or traumatic stress is an unusually strong emotional reaction that has the potential to prevent the individual from maintaining their normal duties and responsibilities within their work, social and family environments. The reaction may be immediate or delayed. Most personal crises however occur because a person is just overloaded. A reprimand from a supervisor may be accepted without issue one day. However, if it happens when you already have several stressors using up your reserve of coping ability, it may be the event or precipitator that pushes you off balance. In other words, the person is pushed enough off balance that he or she needs assistance to rebalance his or her system. This definition focuses on the needs of a person who is being stressed rather than the cause that evokes this response. For [email protected] Property of Bookemon, do NOT distribute 10