Introduction

Everyday we meet people on the streets, in our workplace and our friends. In these places we meet people who are experiencing crisis on a daily basis. Some of these people experience the hardships of life in such a profound way that they turn to us hoping that we will show them a way out. Our emotions takes hold of us when we start to hear their stories and therefore, we need to have some sort of guidance to help us along the road of a counseling situation, because we enter into a helping mode unaware of the fact that we are counseling the person who come to us. That is where the ABC+D method might help us a lot. In this article, I will discuss this method in more detail as well as the advantages, which this might bring to our counseling skills.

The Person of the Crisis Counselor and the role of words

"Language then is literally an integral part of one's self"(Switzer:1986:61). Why is the language we use so important? It is important because to some extend it shows something about your attitude towards the client who is in a crisis. Our language will also show the client what type of person we are whether we really care about them or not.The language can determine our whole out come of the session.That will show the client whether you really care about their crisis. As our language show the client how open we are, we must also remember four important things when we counsel a client.

Firstly, we need to ask ourselves where are we located? Our location will guide us in what kind of language we should use. Different situations needs different wording. Would you talk to a person about to commit suicide in the same manner as if you are talking to a friend?Secondly, how available are we for our clients? Do they need to look for us when they need to talk to us? We should plan our daily activities in such a way that when they come for a counseling session that we are available so that you as a counselor can give your full attention.

Thirdly, how mobile are you? There will be times that you must be prepared to engage into a comprehensive crisis intervention. This means that you should be able to get there where your help is needed and lastly, a Crisis counselor must be flexible. This means that he/she must be able to leave the things they are busy with, but only after he/she has assess the situation carefully, decide what action is needed to be taken.  

But "the most important and foundational condition that must be provided by the Counselor is accurate empathy and its accurate communication" (Switzer:1986:72). 

Let us look at the ABC+D method of Crisis Counseling. This method only consisted out of the ABC, which was developed by Switzer and later Clinebell added the D to this model. Let us now look at these letters individually, what they mean and how they can help us.

A=Achieve Contact

" The first issue of significance is the establishment of a relationship of trust" (Switzer, 1986:80). This means that you should be an open person who has a lot of self-confidence and a good self-esteem. Therefore you as a Crisis Counselor should be able to ask the right questions at the right time. Questions like: "What has been happening within the last two weeks ? When did you begin to feel this way, or when did you begin to feel worse? What is new in your life situation? What persons have been involved etc?" (Switzer, 1986:81). These questions will help you to shed light on the issue and to understand where the client is physically and emotionally at this moment. This procedure is a part of the determination of whether there is a crisis at all, as well as a necessary early step if it is discovered that in fact it is a crisis situation. 

This will also clarify your position within this crisis issue. It will also help you to understand why this client's behavior is like the way he/she reacts. " it should be emphasized that even though persons in crisis are aware that something is wrong at the moment, they may or may not be able without assistance to discover what set off this emotional response and the sense of inability to cope" (Switzer,1986:82).So from the beginning the counselor can learn a lot about the situation in which position the client finds itself in.

B=Boiling Down(Focus)

" The second major stage of the process is that of focusing on the present situation, the source of stress, and the attempt to identify the nature of the threat to the individual" (Switzer,1986:88). This means that you bring the client back to the fact that he/she is here because of a crisis situation and that you were called to assist. Here, once again there are two separable steps, exploration and identification of the threat. Here, you as a counselor explore the things that have brought this crisis upon the client. That is why it is so important to know the history of the client for the past two weeks, was enough for the client to decide to come and see you. The goal of t he Crisis Counselor is to try and link those aspects of t6he past with the present crisis and bring it to a point where it could be dealt with effectively. There the counselor must be aware that he/she in bringing up this memory of what happened to the counselee during his/her life and one cannot help to wonder if it is somehow related to the counselee's current problem. Thus, the counselor must be aware that these things take time to come to the open and therefore if it comes he/she must be able to channel it back to the person in distress.    

Now that we have boiled down to the problem, you as the counselor must help the client to find some sort of a coping mechanism to deal with the problem.  

C=Coping

"The first phrase involves an inventory of problem-solving resources, seeking those strengths within the person him/herself who has lost sight in the midst of the distortions of the crisis" (Switzer, 1986:93).Therefore the counselor needs to stimulate the client, in order for him/her to find his/her own coping mechanism.Therefore the Crisis Counselor needs to travel with the client in a therapeutic alliance in seeking for that mechanism. That the counselor can only do by means of encouraging the person to go deep within him/herself to find those answers. Only if the client has done that, the (D) comes into the picture and a plan of action can be drawn up.   

D=Developing a plan of Action

Clinebell suggests eight steps of how to go about it when you help a client to develop an Action plan. There are just a few: " Encourage the person to reach out to help and be helped by others through similar crisis. Help a person develop further action goals for coping with other parts of the crisis. Help the person put the crisis in the context of his or her own faith, and thus grow spiritually. Help the person recognize growth as it occurs through constructive coping" (Clinebell, 1984:207-208). If a counselor can achieve this then not only does the client grpw but the counselor as well. If the counselor can show the client that every crisis must rather be seen as a growing experience rather than a depressive experience, the client will successfully deal with all his/her crisis's in the future and will not you have helped her to solve his or her own problem, but you have also empowered him/her to help others help themselves.

Conclusion

Pastors and Crisis Counselors are under a huge amount of stress to perform. By enabling others to help themselves, pastors and crisis counselors can focus more on the issues where more attention needs to be given. Pastors, things like the other needs within a congregation and counselors on more severe cases like addictions, abuse etc. However, with a population that is bombarded with crisis's, it is time to counter attack this invasion and try to put an end to the crisis's. This will take along time however one thing is sure and that is that there will always be a person in need of support.

Bibliography

Switzer D, (1986) "The Minister as Crisis Counselor" Nashville: Abingdon Press

Clinebell H (1984) "Basic types of Pastoral Care & Counseling" Nashville: Abingdon Press