Christian Crisis Response Training Courses

Instructors for all Crisis courses are ICISF approved trained trainers. All courses are approved and recognized by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.

Instructors for all courses employ an interactive method of instruction that will utilize a participant manual, multimedia presentation, video, role-plays, skill-building exercises, case studies, and practical discussion to achieve course objectives.

Basic Group CISM/Crisis Intervention

Core Requirement for Christian Crisis Response Certification – Basic level

This multi-phasic, multi-component approach to critical incident response is the “standard of care.” It will prepare you to respond to crisis and disaster in your local community or a national deployment. The American Red Cross, Salvation Army, First Responders, Homeland Security, FEMA and other government agencies recognize this training from AACC and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.

You will learn:

• The spiritual, psychological, physiological, and real impact of traumatic stress
• The prevalence and cost of traumatic incidents
• CISM response guidelines
• Means of integrating Christian faith into crisis response intervention
• How to coordinate CISM interventions
• How to conduct Debriefings, Defusings, and Crisis Management Briefings

Grief Following Trauma

Elective course for Christian Crisis Response Certification

Trauma and loss have a major impact on the lives of grieving individuals and families. This course is designed to help caregivers identify the normal and complicated patterns of grief following trauma; describe factors that may complicate the traumatic grief process; identify the primary needs of people
experiencing grief following trauma; and define practical ways of caring for grieving individuals through the post trauma continuum while practicing self-care.

You will learn:

• To identify types of traumatic events and the characteristics of trauma and grief
• To identify normal and pathological grief responses
• To describe factors that may help or hinder the traumatic grief process
• To perform essential skills for assisting grieving people including: death notification, preparing people for body identification, and effective support services
• To apply a practical application of the SAFER model to Rando’s theory of the grief process

Pastoral/Spiritual Crisis Intervention

Elective course for Christian Crisis Response Certification Pastoral Crisis Intervention may be thought of as the combination of faith-based resources with
traditional techniques of crisis intervention. Pastoral crisis intervention represents a powerful addition to the traditional community and organizational psychological support resources. The purpose of the program is to assist participants in learning how pastoral and spiritual interventions and traditional
psychological crisis interventions may be effectively integrated. Chaplains, pastoral counselors, mental health professionals, ministers and anyone interested in the use of faith-based resources in healing will find this course helpful.

You will learn:

• Critical stress interventions—taken to a higher level
• Leadership skills for times of crisis
• ICISF model of pastoral crisis intervention
• To identify and respond to a “crisis of faith” following trauma
• Self-care
• Psychological triage and common psychological reactions during crisis
• Practice in pastoral/spiritual crisis interventions, including challenging applications

School Crisis Intervention/Responding
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation to School Crisis

Elective course for Christian Crisis Response Certification

Educators nationwide and worldwide struggle to establish and manage School Crisis Intervention teams in response to the recent escalation in frequency and scope of campus emergencies. Community CISM teams have much to offer, but much to learn about the unique milieu of schools. Similarly, schools can benefit from CISM technology and strategies. This course attempts to develop common language and approach that fit within the broad goals and specific needs of school crisis management. Working together in multi-disciplinary teams, we explore organizing principles, develop specific skills and culminate in a large incident planning simulation.

You will learn:

• Children and staff reactions to trauma
• Basic psychotraumatology/CISM for children–debriefing and defusing
• How schools react to crisis
• Overview of CISM and School Crisis Management and techniques of crisis intervention
• Assessment of individuals and groups
• Developmental modifications and applications
• Large incident planning
• Helper stress

Emotional and Spiritual Care in Disasters

Core Requirement for Christian Crisis Response Certification – Advanced level

The purpose of this advanced level course is to enhance the skills of clergy, chaplains, mental health professionals, and trained crisis responders to provide effective emotional and spiritual care (ESC) to meet the disaster-related needs of disaster responders and disaster affected families and individuals within disaster operations. This course builds on the crisis intervention principles taught in the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) core courses to effectively integrate these principles within ESC teams for appropriate care throughout the disaster continuum from the immediate to long-term recovery process.

You will learn:

• To articulate the role of the ES caregiver
• To clearly define the role and function of the emotional and spiritual caregiver within the
  incident command system and disaster relief operations
• To provide emotional and spiritual care to disaster survivors, first responders, and relief
  workers through a multifaceted range of ESC interventions within a multi-phasic continuum
  of the post trauma/disaster aftermath
• To assess one’s own suitability to provide ESC within the context of disaster
• To identify a personal self-care plan for maintaining one’s own emotional, physical, and
  spiritual health during deployment

Individual Crisis Intervention/CISM

Core Requirement for Christian Crisis Response Certification – Basic level

Crisis intervention is NOT psychotherapy; rather it is a specialized acute emergency mental health intervention which requires specialized training. As physical first-aid is to surgery, crisis intervention is to psychotherapy. Crisis interventions are typically done one-on-one or in groups. This program is designed to teach participants the fundamentals of, and a specific protocol for, individual intervention.

You will learn:

• The concept of CISM as a comprehensive crisis intervention program
• The role of the individual crisis intervention in the comprehensive CISM program
• Terms and concepts relevant to the study of crisis, traumatic stress, and crisis intervention
• Utilities and demonstration of selected crisis communication techniques
• Psychological reactions to crisis and trauma
• SAFER protocol of individual crisis intervention

AACC Mediation Certification Program

A Faith-based Approach to Alternative Dispute Resolution

Professional Mediation

Professional Mediation Training is a 40-hour intensive certificate program in structured mediation skills. This basic course will prepare you for further, advanced training in divorce and family mediation and various other specialty mediation programs. It combines 20 hours of video-based education with 20 hours of face-to-face small groups skills training. It integrates the best of Christian education with the skills of structured mediation. Completion of video training is required to attend the on-site training.

You will learn:

• An understanding of mediation from a faith-based approach
• Negotiation styles
• Transformative models
• The process of conflict from dispute to resolution
• Points of Impasse
• Co-Mediation – purpose and techniques
• The Six Stages of Mediation
• How to cope with difficult people
• Mediation strategies
• Ethical and legal issues in mediation

Pre-training assignments required

Family Mediation

Family Mediation Training is a face-to-face, on-site training that will prepare you to mediate conflicts and issues facing divorcing couples. Divorce mediation offers dramatic and hopeful advantages for individuals and families as an alternative to divorcing in the traditional adversarial legal process. It is
less costly for families financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Couples that mediate are three times more likely to uphold the terms of their agreement than couples who have divorced through the adversarial system.

You will learn:

• Why mediation provides a better solution for divorcing families and is conducive to creating a healthier environment to co-parent children
• Models for helping divorcing couples in creating a parenting plan covering issues such as custody, child support, and visitation
• Mediation memorandum writing
• How to mediate challenging family situations
• Practical family mediation skills through role-plays and mediation exercises

Completion of homework assignments is required

The Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Addiction

This workshop will present the most recent clinical work on diagnosing and treating sex addiction. Dr. Laaser is a treatment leader in both the secular and Christian fields. His unique biblical approach will allow you to correctly bring hope for healing to your clients. Abstinence and freedom from sexual sin and
addiction is possible. Origins, presentations, and treatment strategies from a spiritual, physical, emotional, behavioral, and relational perspective will be offered. Case studies will be used throughout and participants are encouraged to bring their own for discussion. This workshop allows students to get credits toward certification as a Christian Sex Addiction Specialist.

You will learn:

• To accurately identify the presentation of sex addiction and make accurate diagnoses
• To construct a treatment plan with all its elements
• How to work with the spouses of sex addicts to facilitate healing of marriages

Emotionally Focused Therapy

Let’s face it, couples counseling is hard work. Moving a couple from arguing to understanding each other is difficult. The highly effective Haven of Safety Couples Intensives is based on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which is well researched and one of the most effective marital therapy models today. EFT makes sense of how couples argue, why couples argue and outlines how to heal hurts and help a couple emotionally connect and find a safe haven with each other. This is a clinically focused, practical training for counselors (of all skill levels) who want a more in-depth experience of ‘using’
Emotionally Focused Therapy with distressed couples. The focus will be on conceptualizing a couple’s distress through the lens of attachment theory and utilizing emotions to expand a couple’s experience to heal hurts and create bonding experiences. This training will be a blend of case studies (bring one of your own for discussion), role-play, and teaching to make this as clinically relevant and applicable to your work with couples as possible.

You will learn:

• The key principles of Emotionally Focused Therapy utilized in the Haven of Safety Couple\ Intensives
• Why couples argue (overview of attachment theory), and how to unravel rigid argument patterns (overview of the 9 steps of EFT)
• The main interventions of Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Haven of Safety Couple Intensives
• How to conceptualize a couple through the lens of attachment theory
• To work with emotions to expand the emotional experience of each spouse to engage a withdrawer and soften a pursuer
• A practical understanding of using the main interventions of EFT