Psychological first aid is the initial phase of psychological treatment carried out by a qualified professional to address the problems that a person who has recently undergone an episode of distress, psychological distress, or trauma.
It must be taken into account that although decades of scientific research have allowed the development of very ambitious psychotherapy programs that take place over several months, mental health problems do not have to conform to the ideal working conditions of psychologists. , and it is often necessary to prioritize the immediacy of the intervention. For example, in situations of natural disasters, traffic accidents, attacks, domestic violence, etc.
Having said that, Some of the keys to Psychological First Aid can be taken as a reference by friends and family of the person who has suffered a crisis, although it must be taken into account that these types of actions cannot replace the support provided by a psychologist.
There are many reasons why a person may require psychological first aid intervention, among the main ones are cases of stress or experiencing stressful situations, traumas, accidents of all kinds, couple breakups, deaths of family members or the communication of serious illnesses.
In professional jargon, psychological first aid is also known as “crisis intervention,” since it This is a time when the patient is especially vulnerable and requires a quick and effective professional response.
On the other hand, psychological first aid is essential, especially for those people who are more affected by the problems, situations or episodes that they have had to experience and that have affected their mental health in one way or another.
In these lines you will find the most important tips that must be taken into account to provide psychological first aid, looking at how professionals do it.
1. Listen actively
Active listening is one of the most important skills that any self-respecting psychologist must put into practice, an attitude that allows both professionals and ordinary people to achieve a total understanding of everything that the patient or our client wants to communicate to us. interlocutor.
To listen actively we must have the predisposition to understand any of the client’s demands and also to help the person with anything they need, paying attention to both their verbal speech and their non-verbal communication.
In this first phase of listening we should not yet give any advice or position ourselves in any way, but rather it is time to let the person express themselves and vent in a completely normal manner and to communicate everything they need to us.
In addition to that, it is important to repeat the most important parts of your speech and ask whenever we do not understand what you have told us or when we need to obtain more information about relevant parts of your first explanations.
2. Respect the silences
Silences are very important phases within a person’s speech and must be treated with special attention by the professional, especially if the person is in a situation of crisis or great psychological suffering.
That is why every good psychologist must know how to correctly interpret each of his patient’s silences, since Through its analysis you can understand how the person really feels and what is the exact state of your mental health.
Non-verbal communication is everything that we express without speaking, as well as all the elements of the other person’s speech that belong to the non-verbal sphere.
For the therapist’s own presence to serve as a therapeutic element, it is important to assess the functioning of the following elements of non-verbal communication: maintain a relaxed posture and look towards the interlocutor, look them in the eyes avoid doing other activities while listening and maintain a relaxed facial expression.
Using good non-verbal communication will allow us to best support the client who is suffering, provide our support and exert a therapeutic effect just with our presence.
4. Offer help
Another stage that we must take into account when providing a psychological first aid service is to offer help to the person who is having a hard time, but also to indicate the type of help that we will offer.
That is, verbalizing the strategy that we are going to follow as professionals to help the person also has a therapeutic function, as well as explaining what the patient expects from us and listing the phases that the person will go through until they are cured.
5. Manage crying
Managing crying is another way that psychology professionals can provide quality psychological first aid. The psychologist’s job should be to facilitate crying at all times and, if necessary, offer a sincere hug.
As with silences, we must learn to manage the crying of that person who is having a hard time and allow them to have time to express themselves, something that also has a great therapeutic function in itself.
Crying relieves people, allows them to vent, relax and also come to terms with what happened; It allows us to lower our guard and favors both communication and the expression of feelings.
It is common for each person to experience their psychological discomfort in a different way: while some clients open up very quickly and are able to express what they feel very directly: it is possible that some people need more time to communicate.
Against this, The therapist must identify the times of the person in question and adapt to their rhythm taking into account how she assimilates everything that has happened to her and what type of help will be most necessary for her.
Some people may need to be alone and in those cases it is important that we do not overwhelm them and allow them their time to heal. Sometimes, therapeutic help can be offered simply by accompanying and being there, whenever the client needs it, without pressuring or forcing anyone to be accompanied if they do not want to.
7. Extend help
Sometimes it can be very useful to provide a therapeutic process of psychological help shortly after the person’s mental health crisis or traumatic episode has occurred; nevertheless, In some cases this help must continue to be offered for some time.
People who have recently gone through a period of distress, trauma, or psychological torment may need help for an undetermined amount of time. That is why as therapists it is our responsibility to provide that help and do everything possible to stop them from having ruminative, distressing or negative thoughts about what has happened to them.
