When someone is going through a crisis, it means that he is experiencing a situation or life event that he cannot handle on his own. It does not necessarily have to be a “traumatic” event for a person to feel that he or she is in a crisis. The purpose of crisis counseling isn’t about analyzing the event—but the client’s reaction to the event.
It’s important to remember that crisis counseling is not psychoanalysis. Nor is it long term. For example, if you go to a Newport Beach psychologist for a crisis, he is going to set up a treatment for you that lasts only between a few weeks to three months. Crisis counseling is designed to enable the client to cope with his current crisis and give him the tools and information he needs to react to future events with self-confidence and awareness.