Crisis Intervention

“One of the most effective resources available for educating clinicians in crisis intervention…Each chapter provides clear, practical guidance for implementing theory-based interventions in real-world clinical settings. This work’s balance of theoretical depth and clinical utility sets it apart….it is comprehensive, practical, and exceptionally well-constructed. Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.” - Choice, American Library Association “Scott Fraser provides kind, encouraging, and inspiring insight into the challenges of both psychotherapy and the essence of crisis intervention. Dr. Fraser’s relatable book is highly readable and practical. It is an evidence-based yet efficient approach to treatment. The book is a new, more efficient approach to professional assistance. It’s both helpful systematically and in practice guidelines, such as his process of change model. Highly recommended.” - Charles R. Figley, PhD, Kurzweg Chair in Disaster Mental Health and School of Social Work, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA “In his highly innovative volume, J. Scott Fraser offers a fresh, process-based approach to crisis intervention. His focus on tipping points, those critical moments of decision and change, aligns closely with what we know about the role of context, flexibility, and values in creating long-lasting change. This book invites practitioners to step into the dynamic flow of crises, not just to resolve them, but to use them as catalysts for growth. Fraser’s work speaks to anyone willing to see crises as precious windows of opportunity and is a necessary read for practitioners wishing to deepen their work when everything is on the line.” - Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Foundation Professor Emeritus, University of Nevada, Reno, and originator of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) “The tipping point interventions and the process of change model presented in this book are inspiring ways to work with people in crisis situations for optimal outcomes. This book is a must-read for professionals who work with clients in crisis situations and want a new way forward.” - Toni Zimmerman, PhD, LMFT, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies Department, and Program Director for the Marriage and Family Therapy Graduate Program, Colorado State University, Fort Collins “Scott Fraser’s Crisis Intervention fills a much-needed gap in the psychotherapy literature. Much of that work is grounded in the presumption that clinicians must slowly and methodically assess and plan, yet much of clinical practice requires great urgency. Fraser offers a new vision of how to proceed in the context of crisis, centered in an overarching process of change model that includes a systemic vision that extends beyond the individual, and a view in which crisis is not equated with disaster but as presenting opportunities for fundamental change. Well written and filled with illustrative examples, the book is authored by a skillful clinician who has worked for years in this context. I highly recommend this book to all practicing mental health professionals, and this should be essential reading for all students in training to be psychotherapists.” - Jay Lebow, PhD, Clinical Professor and Senior Scholar, The Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University, Evanston, IL “This book masterfully extends the seminal Mental Research Institute brief therapy model to the arena of crisis intervention. Drawing on systemic and social constructivist ideas, Scott Fraser shows how crises such as trauma, suicidality, grief, domestic violence, and sexual assault present windows of opportunity for clinicians to tip vicious cycles of problem maintenance in new and positive directions through strategic, often counterintuitive intervention.” - Michael J. Rohrbaugh, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson “Drawing on his extensive experience, Scott Fraser rewards us with an innovative and far-reaching orientation to crisis. Fraser poses a striking challenge to common sense responses to crises and provides rich illustrations of his counterintuitive view in action. A useful and deeply engaging work.” - Kenneth J. Gergen, PhD, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA

J. Scott Fraser, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with nearly 40 years of clinical practice, supervision, training, and academic teaching. He has served as director of internship training, associate dean, and director of clinical training and as professor of clinical psychology in the doctoral program at the School of Professional Psychology at the Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Before that, he was director of a crisis/brief therapy center in a large general hospital setting for 14 years. He has published many papers and books, including Unifying Effective Psychotherapies: Tracing the Process of Change (APA Books, 2018) and the DVD titled The Process of Change in Integrative Psychotherapy, which uses the process model described in this book.