How do we help an individual in crisis deal with the content of that crisis?  We gently encourage him to become involved with us in the assessment set.  First, we want to think with them about the precipitating event and what happened.  We know that the conflict is in the interaction and that the precipitating event disrupted the interaction between the individual and his situation.  We also know that the precipitating event occurred fairly recently.  It may be true that the conflict has been going on for a long time.  But the crisis was precipitated by a fairly recent event, a worsening of the conflict, some exacerbation of the difficulty in the interaction.

Frequently, people in crisis will not be particularly receptive to this notion.  They will want to blame themselves, see the cause as originating in the past, or, more often than one might think, try to convince us that the crisis has no cause.

Harold says, My relationships with my family, friends, fellow workers, and so on, are fine.  They are all wonderful people.  Don’t try to blame them for this.  I really haven’t done anything, either.  Nothing has happened.  This just came over me, and there is no reason for it.

Our understanding of crisis and of the crisis intervention process lets us know that crises always have a precipitating event.  In crisis communication then, we gently but persistently encourage the individual to think about himself, his situation, and the interaction between him and his situation until we both can see what caused the crisis.  Usually, discovering and understanding the precipitating event is not particularly difficult.  Sometimes though, we must be very patient and skillful to get to where both of us understand what happened. …

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