Crisis Counselling
Whether at work or at home, anyone can experience a crisis. Work or life can overwhelm us.
A crisis is an overwhelming reaction of distress in response to an event or a build up of stressors.
Everyone needs access to same-day crisis counselling when experiencing peak mental, physical, emotional or behavioural distress. Someone who cannot function needs immediate support. Do not delay.
Contact us via telephone, live chat or the contact page on the ACT Curious website. Our friendly and caring Intake Team are the first point of call when needing crisis counselling.
ACT Curious Crisis Counselling provides the same-day support a person needs to deal with their current stressors and boost their ability to cope. Our ACT Curious Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services will help you learn to move forward in your valued direction.
Experience counts
Our experienced ACT Curious team have the skills and knowledge to help EAP clients cope with a crisis. Our Senior Clinicians have been recruited for their leadership and management experience to complement their mental health expertise. Our ACT Curious clinicians have experience in a wide range of roles, including:
- policing and emergency services
- management of disaster and emergency relief
- the armed forces
- health and human services
- non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and
- the commercial sector.
Our combination of mental health expertise and professional experience ensures we can relate to your challenges. We provide the right mental health services you need in a crisis and beyond.
Psychological Flexibility
Psychological flexibility consists of two skills. Both skills can be learned.
Psychological flexibility includes the ability to experience difficult thoughts and feelings, without trying to control them, change them or avoid them (we call this ‘mindfulness’). Psychological flexibility also includes taking action by choosing to move towards your goals, in a manner consistent with your values (who and what is important to you), even when difficult thoughts, feelings and memories show up.
What leads to a crisis?
Our capacity for psychological flexibility is tested every day. Challenges at work and at home, in our relationships, and in our systems may all contribute to a crisis.
At work
Competition is relentless. Organisational change, new strategies, or new leaders bring uncertainty and anxiety, as well as opportunities. The pressure to perform can be crippling.
Redundancy, reassignment or work reorganisation may threaten our sense of self as well as our productivity. Workplace bullying or discrimination can have intense and long-lasting consequences.
Outside of family, many of us spend more time with work colleagues than anyone else. Their loss or departure is keenly felt. Workplace accidents or incidents leading to serious injury or death often hit many people hard. The ripple effects go far beyond those directly involved.
At home
For too many people, stress is a chronic and unavoidable part of work, personal or family circumstances. Sometimes our distress exceeds our ability to cope with the demands of life.
Losing a family member, loved one, or close friend is one of the most traumatic events in life. Physical injury or ill-health often prompt psychological distress as well.
People in crisis are often struggling with challenging personal, family or work relationships, or an unsafe environment at home or at work. Victims of crime to person or property, along with those involved in legal matters can find the anxiety to be intense.
Education provides opportunities. But with so much perceived to be riding on our secondary and tertiary education, the pressure of study can be crippling.
Financial distress needs no explanation.
Uncertainty and change in the time of COVID-19
Nearly everyone has experienced anxiety, loss or grief in the age of COVID-19. We are all living with an underlying level of stress and uncertainty not usually seen outside of wartime.
Job loss and changes at work. Different patterns of work, home and family life. The inability to be with each other to support our family and friends through the normal stages of life, growth, and death. The pandemic has had a wide-ranging impact upon our normal stages of life.
Everyone has coped differently. Everyone has a different capacity to cope. Few of us are truly the same today. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered our capacity to cope with other stressful events in our lives. Employee stress management and mental health services are in high demand.
The mounting burden
Not every crisis is characterised by an emergency situation or dire sense of panic. The cumulative impact of vicarious trauma, empathy-based stress and compassion fatigue, or burnout from our day-to-day family, work and community commitments can all trigger a crisis.
People in crisis often carry the burden of multiple overwhelming challenges. With ACT Curious Crisis Counselling and other EAP services, you don’t have to carry the burden alone.
What are the signs of crisis?
ACT Curious Crisis Counselling is a confidential service. Our experienced clinicians can provide the same-day support needed to listen and help you, and then start making positive changes at work and at home, so you can move forward in your valued direction.
If you believe you or someone else is in a crisis, do not delay in addressing your concerns.
A distinct and sudden change in a person’s behaviour is a common sign of crisis, especially in response to an emergency or dramatic event.
Yet it can take some time for a person to understand the reality of their situation, or for the signs of a person in crisis to be clear to others. To recognise behavioural change, you also need to consider how a person is today, relative to several weeks or months ago.
Behavioural, cognitive, emotional or physical signs of a person in crisis may include:
Behavioural
Significant changes in sleeping habits, new or more frequent nervous habits, compulsive or dangerous behaviour, changes in patterns of drinking, smoking or drug-taking, procrastination, changes in eating patterns, changes in libido, withdrawal from usual patterns of activity, isolation, neglect of personal health and hygiene.
Cognitive
Lower productivity at work or performance in education, confusion, forgetfulness, fatigue, apprehension, indecision.
Emotional
Depression, anxiety, sadness, tenseness, anger, apathy, rapid mood swings.
Physical
Trembling or shaking, rapid or shallow breathing, butterflies, indigestion, changed patterns of bowel movement or urination, significant changes in weight, headaches, muscle aches, heart palpitations.
Work. Home. Mental health covered with ACT Curious
With ACT Curious as your EAP provider, everyone at work has access to well-trained, experienced clinicians and therapists in a time of crisis.
Contact us today to arrange ACT Curious Crisis Counselling, or learn more about the full range of ACT Curious Employee Assistance Program services.
We can also help your leaders to develop a proactive training and development strategy to improve workplace communication and employee engagement.
With the support of our experienced ACT Curious professionals, a proactive approach to the promotion of good mental health in the workplace, psychological flexibility and stress management can help everyone address issues before they escalate to a crisis.
All ACT Curious EAP counselling, stress management, and mental health services are confidential.
IN AN EMERGENCY
If you are at risk of harming yourself or others please contact Emergency Services by calling 000 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
If you require immediate medical attention, you should contact Emergency Services, or go to the Emergency Department or Casualty Ward of your nearest hospital.
