Russell House Publishing Ltd

"It is at times of crisis that the deepest paid is felt and the full intensity of human suffering can be experienced. It is also the point at which the potential for growth and enhancement is at its greatest". The author.

This book shows the value of crisis intervention as an approach for anyone in the helping professions, and provides a foundation for further learning, so that its benefits for practice can be enhanced. Enlivened with case studies, it shows that crisis intervention:

• is a helpful, albeit demanding, method of working with people in difficulties and distress
  
• can capitalise on the positive potential of crisis, making it an excellent basis for promoting empowerment
  
• does not preclude the use of other approaches or therapeutic tools, but rather enhances them, by providing a framework of understanding to guide their use
  

However, the immense value of crisis theory has at times been lost through being misunderstood or oversimplified, and by a failure to keep up with developments in theory, policy and practice.

This book:

• clears up some of the misunderstandings, and presents a strong case for the increased and more informed use of crisis theory in practice
  
• shows how complex and multi-layered crisis intervention work is
  
• updates, amends and extends crisis theory to that it takes fuller account of the sociological dimensions of crisis, such as issues of discrimination on the grounds of gender, race/ethnicity, and age
  
• deepens traditional crisis theory by incorporating with its framework an understanding of the existential aspects of crisis - issues of meaning, purpose, anguish and threatened identity
  
• demonstrates core practical issues, such as the need to be ready to address the potential for aggression and violence, and the need for work to be allocated fairly rapidly for it to be successful