7 tips for giving Psychological First Aid

Psychological first aid is the initial phase of psychological treatment that initiates a qualified professional to attend to the problems that a person who has recently passed by an episode of anguish, psychological discomfort or trauma.

It must be borne in mind that although decades of scientific research have allowed the development of very ambitious psychotherapy programs that are developed 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 of 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 this type of action cannot replace the support provided by a psychologist.

How to give Psychological First Aid?

There are many reasons why a person may require a psychological first aid intervention, among the main ones are cases of stress or experience of stressful situations, traumas, accidents of all kinds, breakups, deaths in the family or communication of illnesses serious.

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 shape.

In these lines you will find the most important advice that must be taken into account to give psychological first aid, looking at how we professionals do it.

1. actively listen

Active listening is one of the most important skills that any self-respecting psychologist should put into practice, an attitude that allows us to both professionals and ordinary people to achieve a full understanding of everything that the patient or our interlocutor.

To listen actively we must have the predisposition to understand any of the client's demands and also to help the person with whatever they need, paying attention to both their verbal discourse and their non-verbal communication.

In this first phase of listening, we should not give any advice or position ourselves in any way, but it is time to let the person express themselves and vent normally and tell us everything they need.

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.

• Related article: "Active listening: the key to communicate with others"

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 they are in a situation of crisis or great suffering psychological.

That is why every good psychologist must know how to correctly interpret each of his patient's silences, since through its analysis you can get to understand how the person really feels and what is the exact state of his mental health.

3. Help yourself with non-verbal communication

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 realm.

In order 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 directed towards the interlocutor, look into the eyes, avoid doing other activities while listening and keep a relaxed facial expression.

Making use of good non-verbal communication will allow us to best support the client who is suffering, offer our support and exert a therapeutic effect only with our presence.

• You may be interested in: "The 5 practical keys to master non-verbal language"

4. offer help

Another of the stages that we must take into account when providing a psychological first aid service is that of offering help to the person who is having a bad time, but also indicating the type of help that we will offer.

In other words, verbalizing the strategy that we are going to follow as professionals to help the person also has a function. therapy, as well as explaining what the patient expects of us and listing the phases through which the person will go through until his healing.

5. manage crying

Managing crying is another way that psychology professionals 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 the person who is going through it. wrong and encourage them to have their time to express themselves, something that also has a great therapeutic function in itself same.

Crying relieves people, allows them to let off steam, relax and also accept what happened; It allows you to let your guard down and favors both communication and the expression of feelings.

• Related article: "What is emotional intelligence?"

6. Respect the rhythm of each person

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: some people may 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 handles everything that has happened to her and what kind of help will be most needed for her.

Some people may need to be alone and in those cases it is important that we not overwhelm them and allow them time to heal. Sometimes, therapeutic help can be offered simply by accompanying and being there, whenever the client needs it, without pressing or forcing anyone to be accompanied if they don't want to.

7. lengthen 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 psychological distress, trauma, or torment may need help for an indeterminate amount of time. That is why as therapists it is up to us to provide that help and do everything possible to stop them from having ruminating, distressing or negative thoughts about what has happened to them.