Mental Health & Crisis Intervention

The nature of a crisis is a result of not having the adequate "cognitive mind maps," thus, lacking "coping mechanisms," individuals confronted with difficult situations tend to respond irrationally, not having the equilibrium, and in a heightened state of anxiety, either turn to self-destructive behavior, and/or hostility towards others.

Here we talk about indicators during the early stages of a crisis, crisis incidents in their latter stages or development, and the role of our self-esteem.

In this slide we investigate the anatomy of communication, and the critical role our body language and tone of voice plays to shape the meaning and context of our verbal message. We also talk about bias, proxemics (similar to body language), and miscommunication.

Conflict resolution focuses on "de-escalation" of conflict, and focuses on bringing down psychological defenses, and is a response to conflict. Here we discuss the intelligence cycle in communications, miscommunication, and the importance of "active listening."

The intelligence cycle in respect to communications is a several step process used to gather information from our speaker, which through the evaluation process becomes "intelligence," as the information yields value by means of examination, and in result helps us in our response.

"Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" is a conceptual model explaining human needs, especially in relation to "self-esteem." This model shows us that our self-esteem is something more than our basic needs or impulses.

Our self-esteem is feedback loop which is interdependent on how we treat ourselves and others. How we treat others reflects back on our behavior towards self. This is where we form our bad habits and self-destructive behavior.

This slide distinguishes between NLP and "Verbal Judo." Moreover, students will learn about "Quantum Mechanics," how the human communication process is more than "rhetoric," and the "psychic" roots to psychology, or "parapsychology."

This is an overview of the "Active Listening" modules of the presentation, which consist of emotion labeling, open-ended questions (interviewing), the use of effective pauses, paraphrasing, mirroring, minimal encouragements, the "I" message, rapport (and "Value Exchange"), the intelligence cycle, De-escalation, the comparison between Instrumental vs. Expressive behavior, and more.

Establishing "rapport" is central to bringing down "psychological defenses." In this slide students will learn about the application of "emotional intelligence," and being sincere. when responding to crisis.

There are two behavior types when dealing with crisis and mental health, that is; Expressive vs. Instrumental. Students will learn about the characteristic make-up of both behavior types, and how to differentiate between the two.

Emotion labeling will teach students to detect the dominant learning style of a person by identifying "keywords," or otherwise choice of words which anchor on to auditory, visual, or kinesthetic meaning.

Paraphrasing is an important component to "Active Listening," and in conjunction with the others, will help students learn how to best keep a conversation engaging, all the while conserving the listeners energy, creating opportunity to formulate our response.

Asking Open-Ended questions makes our conversation less intrusive, and allows for the speaker to divulge pertinent information which may yield clues to their internal state and psychological well being.

Using the "I" message, we can make our conversation more personal. In this slide, students will become familiar with how to use the "I" message in their effective communications, and how such can reinforce previous communications.

Effective pauses leverage the power of silence, allowing the speaker to fill in those moments of silence, which can provide us with critical information, and "behavior leakage," that can better be used to determine our speakers motives and intentions.

This slide will teach students how to harness the use of effective pausing to their advantage, which will also help us conserve our energy, all the while keeping our subject talking.

In this portion of our presentation, we discuss the application of "Minimal Encouragements," which draw our speaker further into the conversation, making them emotionally invested, and keeps the conversation flowing. Minimal Encouragements are somewhat of a passive approach to Active Listening, nevertheless, coupled with the other components, makes up Active Listening.

Whether you are a providing counseling in the early stages of a crisis, or responding to a latter stage crisis, when making your assessment of an individual, students should be mindful of the different factors at play which may cause miscommunication, or confusion as to the the cause of an individuals mental health and state of being.

This slide will go over the considerations students should be cognizant of in all dealings with people, which will aid in our formulating of a more accurate psychological profile of the subject.

This slide will give students a guide to additional studies which can help aid in the understanding of the different personality types, and especially interpersonal communications. This is just a guide, and students are encouraged to pursue further independent studies in human behavior, but has been included in this presentation as a reference guide and consideration to the overall process of Crisis Intervention and Mental Health.

A true story of how I prevented a crisis by practicing good Active Listening skills.

The whole point of this Active Listening, and NLP, in response to crisis and mental health concerns is to cause about a positive change, be it a persons state of health and well being, or at the very least the  temporary diffusing and De-escalating of the present crisis at hand. Whatever the instance, the purpose of our response to a crisis is to encourage change without force or enticement, by expressing good leadership qualities.

This part of the course is to educate students on the underlying contributing factors to human psychology, that is, the psychic potential of the human brain in what is referred to as a pseudo-scientific term known as "parapsychology." This topic gets more into the "esoteric," or "metaphysical," but which has been confirmed by "Quantum Mechanics."