For individuals in crisis, crisis communication must lead to modification and clarification of their feelings, emotions, and ideas, thereby enabling them to better deal with their present situation.  For example, if a teenage boy becomes very angry with someone who made a pass at his girl friend and is fighting the impulse to get revenge, crisis communication should modify and defuse his anger while, at the same time, helping to clarify the implications of seeking revenge.  If a young child has had a very traumatic experience and is withdrawing and turning his feelings in on himself, crisis communication should help him modify his feelings somewhat and enable him to talk them out.

In any crisis situation in which our intervention hypothesis directs us to focus on the individual, our goal is to help him modify, clarify, and cope with his feelings and thoughts.  Our skill in and knowledge about dealing with feelings and thoughts need to be made available to the individual for his use in understanding and coping with his own thoughts and feelings.  Before we became involved, he was dealing with his feelings and thoughts through his own internal communication process.  It is then, our goal to become a part of that internal communication process by letting him use us to supplement and support his own communication skills and capacities. …

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