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BENCHMARK CRISIS INTERVENTION PLAN
Benchmark Crisis Intervention Plan
Rebecca McKinney
Department of Counselor Education Family Studies Liberty University
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BENCHMARK CRISIS INTERVENTION PLAN
Crisis Defined, Neurological Changes, Etiology, and Signs
Crisis Defined
A crisis is a threat to life or security, that is real or interpreted to be real (Brooks, 2017, p.
9). To be considered a crisis, a few criteria must be met: there is a precipitating event, distress
occurs after perceiving the precipitating event, normal coping skills cannot alleviate the
symptoms of distress, normal functions have decreased, and there is a temporary state where the
individual is hyper-reactive and hyper-vigilant—otherwise known as being in a state of
disequilibrium (Brooks, 2017, p. 14). This disequilibrium causes psychological and physical
symptoms, which not only disrupts the life of the individual, but it also changes the physical and
neurological systems of the brain (Brooks, 2017, p. 10).
Neurobiology of a Crisis
In detail, the “disequilibrium” of a crisis is caused when the crisis bypasses the normal
neurological processing. In non-crisis situations, the frontal lobes—responsible for nonverbal
relational, and spatial functioning, environmental and social processing, reasoning, logic, etc.—
filters in and regulates responses to stimuli (Brooks, 2017, p. 10, 24). However, in a crisis, the
stimuli activate the limbic system (the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and amygdala), putting the
individual into the hyper-vigilant and reactive state needed to handle danger (Brooks, 2017, p.
10). Here, pituitary gland secretes adrenaline, dopamine, and cortisol, which are the hormones
needed to fight, run (flight), or freeze (Brooks, 2017, p. 9, 11). Once hormonally triggered, the
