Toward men and toward God, she maintained a respectful attitude, lightened by the belief that in a crisis she could deal adequately with either of them.
Robert Nathan

Every crisis is different. That means there's no single way to help someone through one. There are, however, some tested approaches. Let's look first at a framework for the counseling process, and then the theological underpinnings for crisis intervention.

The Stages of Counseling

Gerard Egan, in The Skilled Helper, spells out in layman's language a manageable and practical course of events for counseling that makes a team of the helper and the one in need. Egan's scheme divides counseling into three stages — problem definition, goal development, and action — each of which he further divides into three steps.

Egan wants helpers to remember who is the central figure in each stage of the helping process. He feels "clients should 'own' as much of the helping process as possible. The steps of this model are actually tasks the clients ...