The Designation: Certified Crisis Intervener, CCI

The American Psychotherapy Association and the American Board of Examiners in Crisis Intervention are offering this new certification program for psychologists, counselors, social workers, mental health workers, hotline staff, suicidologists, physicians, nurses, law enforcement officers, coroners, crisis interveners, medical technicians, dentists, crime scene investigators, forensic scientists and others involved in crisis intervention.

The American Psychotherapy Association (APA) is an, independent, interdisciplinary membership association. Multi-disciplinary in its scope, the association actively promotes the dissemination of psychotherapy information. APA’s purpose, along with that of the ABECI, in organizing the Certified Crisis Intervener, CCI program, is to promote uniformity of standards and competency of its members performing crisis intervention.

The ABECI Board is composed of well-known experts in the discipline of Crisis Intervention. The Board regulates the application and examination process to identify qualified crisis interveners and to examine these candidates for the designation of Certified Crisis Intevener.

Information for the Prospective Certified Crisis Intervener, CCI
The prestigious distinction of certification through the American Psychotherapy Association (APA) and the American Board of Examiners in Crisis Intervention (ABECI) can set you apart as a nationally recognized crisis intervener. The APA/CCI certification represents the pinnacle of professional competency and integrity. Members certified by APA and ABECI as a Certified Crisis Intervener, can meet the demand for skilled interveners in a variety of venues related to the field.

The CCI program meets today’s challenges for Certified Crisis Interveners
The APA/CCI certification can offer you a competitive advantage over non-certified interveners. The Certified Crisis Intervener, CCI designation can help you respond to the needs of case management and provide skillful assistance where needed.

The need for qualified crisis interveners has never been greater. In today’s world, those who are well-trained to manage crises not only will survive, but also will help to assure the survival of others.

Crises disrupt life daily. Rape, suicide, natural disasters, man-made trauma, alcohol and drug abuse, child and spouse abuse, hostage situations, all cause havoc to both sufferer and to the significant others in his or her life. Few are trained to intervene effectively in a crisis, and little attention is given to the survival skills and well-being of the intervener.

Crisis Intervention, regardless of the crisis involved, requires special skills and adaptations of skills that are unique to those situations. Time is a critical factor. Whereas in weekly counseling sessions, where it may be possible to work with an individual over a period of time to accomplish problem resolution, the crisis intervener may have only seconds to accomplish his or her purpose. And to the degree that the intervener succeeds, to that degree will the need for additional, on-going counseling be reduced. If the intervener is able to prevent additional personality disorganization from occurring and help the person in crisis to effectively mobilize the ego resources that are usually present during non-crisis times, the normally used life-coping skills of the person can take over and effective functioning be reestablished.

Some additional psychotherapy and support may be needed, but perhaps to a lesser degree than if the initial intervention and management had not been properly done. While there is great emphasis in most training institutions on developing highly-skilled counseling techniques, much less is done to acquaint community agency professionals, law enforcement personnel, para-professionals, counselors and therapists, medical personnel, school teachers and counselors, clergy, peer supporters and the business community with the techniques of Crisis Intervention. Crisis Management constitutes a specialized discipline and skill area of its own, and one that deserves our attention.

All training offers a setting for participants to study how crises develop, to role-play and recreate crisis situations, to be critiqued by experts in the field, to sharpen communication skills, to deal with personal goal setting and on-the-job survival, and to interact with others concerned with Crisis Management. The benefits of such interaction are the dissemination and utilization of the vast amounts of information that may have originated in one professional group that can be utilized by all. When this type of training was started in the 1960s, no other training group in this country utilized this particular interdisciplinary approach to training in this arena. This approach was effective in breaking many of the traditional walls that existed between agencies and between agency personnel.

The training offered takes several forms:

• Training at National Conferences
• In-house training
• Training for multiple agencies
• Workshops
• Staff development programs
• Training offered by ABECI regional and local chapters
• Training at Regional Conferences

Regardless of the specific length of training, the underlying goals for participants in all of the programs are to be able to:

• Set disputants or crisis victims at ease
• Zero in on those problems that are manageable
• Help the individuals in crisis to achieve workable ways to manage their immediate situation
• Institute Crisis Management programs within community agencies, in-house staffs and business settings
• Avoid experiencing personal crisis when attempting to assist someone else.

Training is always done under the direction and supervision of experienced crisis specialists and within groups that are limited in size. Training always takes the "how to…" approach and is designed to provide the necessary skill development for the novice and experienced intervener alike.