From supportive-listening to a solution-focused intervention for counsellors dealing with political trauma

Abstract

This article focuses on a brief 'helping the helper' intervention with school counsellors during a nation-wide political trauma, the recent Intifada in Israel. An emergency field intervention programme for Israeli school counsellors was developed that was aimed at addressing their personal as well as professional (and role-related) concerns to reduce or prevent burnout and enhance empowerment. The action research method was used to adapt the programme to the participants' needs. The resulting brief intervention programme was designed to shift processing of the perceived situation from affective processes to more structured and controlled cognitive processes. The burnout prevention programme included a short (process) debriefing to promote the affective to cognitive coping processes shift, presenting coping strategies to enhance cognitive adaptation to threatening events, and using a solution-focused guidance intervention. The rationale and the results supporting the face validity of the intervention are presented.