Crisis Intervention and Trauma Counseling Flashcards

Secondary traumatic stress (STS) in counselors is best described as:

Answer: Trauma-like symptoms resulting from indirect exposure to clients' traumatic material

Secondary traumatic stress refers to PTSD-like symptoms experienced by helpers who are vicariously exposed to traumatic content through their clients.

The Kübler-Ross five-stage grief model is primarily used in counseling to:

Answer: Help counselors understand potential emotional responses clients may experience after loss

Kübler-Ross's stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) are used as a framework to normalize grief responses, not as a prescriptive linear progression.

Which of the following is a protective factor that research consistently associates with reduced suicide risk?

Answer: Reasons for living, social support, and access to mental health care

Strong reasons for living, social connectedness, and access to mental health care are among the most consistently identified protective factors against suicide.

Safe messaging guidelines for suicide prevention recommend that counselors and media avoid:

Answer: Providing detailed descriptions of suicide methods

Safe messaging guidelines caution against depicting or describing specific methods, as research shows this can contribute to contagion effects.

In crisis intervention, identifying the 'precipitating event' is important because it:

Answer: Reveals the specific stressor that disrupted the client's equilibrium

The precipitating event is the identifiable trigger that overwhelmed the client's coping and created the crisis, making it central to understanding and addressing the problem.

Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy for PTSD involves asking clients to:

Answer: Repeatedly confront trauma memories and safe trauma-related cues to reduce avoidance and fear

PE uses imaginal and in-vivo exposure to trauma memories and reminders, reducing PTSD symptoms by extinguishing conditioned fear responses through repeated approach rather than avoidance.