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Coping with Crisis: A Counselor’s Guide to the Restabilization Process

Jim Burtles
Loving Healing Press (2007)
ISBN 9781932690415
Reviewed by Michael Philliber for RebeccasReads (3/08)

How could a police chaplain, school counselor, or hospital mental health staff member effectively help their people cope with a recent traumatic event? Are there any simple, workable, user-friendly approaches in place that might work? Jim Burtles has spelled out a useable technique in his book “Coping with Crisis: A Counselor’s Guide to the Restabilization Process,” which is written in fairly non-technical language. In this short, 94-page manuscript, Burtles outlines a reasonably uncomplicated, step-by-step syllabus that will aid the helping professional in moving their people toward working through the trauma, improving their skills in dealing with the various problems and rebuilding their confidence in coping with diverse crises.

Burtles points out the five common reactions people have to severe crisis. These reactions are a discovery of one’s fear, excitement, capability and chaos, as well as a discovery of their experience of the unknown. After working through the five emotional discoveries he points out that if people are not assisted in coping with these reactions, then there is greater possibility of either a delayed physical exit or delayed mental exit from the agency to which they belong.

Once Burtles has worked through these reactions and their normal consequences, he spends a large portion of the book laying out his four-stage ‘Restabilization Plan’: Recap, Review, Repair and Reinforce. Then he explains how to employ this process in either a one-on-one or group counseling setting. His plan is to limit the process to four sessions, of no longer than an hour each, which is best implemented within 24 to 72 hours after the traumatic event. This sense of urgency is important because the individual or body of people have probably been propelled by the emergency situation into some cognitive dissonance which places barriers to rational thinking. This may well result in an ‘Activity Collapse’ or a reduced ability to act, think, or respond to life effectively.

The author has filled the book, “Coping with Crisis,” with several pieces of other helpful material. He uses illustrative scenarios depicting how ‘Restabilization’ may look. He expresses as well what skills are essential for a counselor. Burtles also describes a useful tool he calls ‘The Dark Serpent Dilemma’ that is intended to aid the traumatized person in their decision making process. Finally, he gives a brief comparison between his ‘Restabilization Process’ and ‘Critical Incident Stress Debriefing.’

I picked up this book because as a police chaplain I have pondered what ways I might be able to help our department if a serious calamity were to hit. “Coping with Crisis: A Counselor’s Guide to the Restabilization Process” has given me a practicable set of tools to help various people recover from a painful incident, and facilitate the restoration of their ability to cope with crisis.


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