Crisis Intervention Lesson Plan - Essay Example

1). The primary goal of crisis intervention is to "help subjects in crisis defuse their emotions, lowering the potential for violence in an incident and buying time for better decision making and tactical preparations" (Regini, 2004, p. 1). Crisis negotiations is not a solution to ones problems rather it is a means to calm the subject enough to find other short term means of coping with their perceived stressors short term to end the current crisis situation with minimal force. Before discussing specific instances where crisis intervention is utilized, a brief understanding of the key skills involved in crisis intervention will be outlined as follows: empathy, active listening, being nonjudgmental, and setting of boundaries, the ability to restate the subject's often emotional ideas and thoughts, and problem solving skills.

One of the basic tenets of crisis intervention understands and recognizing the range of motions involved in crisis situations. To one degree or another each of us has experienced fear, rejection anger, frustration and depression. This basic human understanding coupled with the skill set listed previously and a police officers tactical knowledge will enable him to effectively deal with a crisis situation. Em Empathy is not a static behavior nor is it merely showing sympathy or pity for the subject's actions or situation.

Empathy involves both listening and understanding the subject's current situation. It does not mean that there is necessarily agreement or disagreement merely understanding. The goal of empathy is to develop a means of communicating which enables the subject to develop trust. According to Regini (2004) without some level of trust between the police officer and the subject there can be no peaceful resolution of the situation. To achieve this trust, it becomes obvious the empathy involves the use of active listening skills in order to facilitate the bond between the police officer and the subject.

As the term implies, active listening is more than listening to the subject and nodding in approval. Active listening requires demonstrated behaviors by the officer. Without communication no trust can develop; therefore, active listening involves engaging the subject into communication and maintaining that communication. Allowing the subject to vent eases the emotions the situation and begins to allow him to focus on dealing with the short term problem, not escalating the current situation.

One of the primary techniques of active listening is reflection - restating what the subject has said and the emotions that are interlaced with it. According to Regini (2004) the FBI has found eight strategies of active listening all of which involve reflection that have proven to be very effective in diffusing a highly charged, volatile situation. These include:Emotion LabelingParaphrasingReflecting/MirroringEffective PausesMinimal Encouragers'I' MessagesSummarizationOpen-ended questions/statements (p. 3).One of the most critical aspects of developing trust through empathy is the ability