Critical Incident Debriefing – The Importance of your ‘Why’

In Episode 312 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week’s three topics:

• Firstly in ‘Ethical, Sustainable Practice’, we look at working within your competence in counselling and psychotherapy.
• Then in ‘Practice Matters’, Rory speaks with Karen Moore about Critical Incident debriefing.
• And lastly in ‘Student Services’, Rory and Ken talk about using your ‘why’ when things get tough.

Working Within Your Competence [starts at 03:41 mins]

Understanding working within your competence with clients is so important. In this section, Rory and Ken highlight why this is the case, and how we can go about improving our competency:

• Competence is all about training.
• CPD is Continuous Professional Development.
• Be aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect – don’t overestimate your abilities.
• We don’t know what we don’t know.
• Consider the consequences of working outside of your competence with clients.
• Specialisms such as working with trauma or young people, require specific training for you to work competently.
• Does your supervisor have competence in this area to be able to supervise you effectively?
• Will you be able to stay regulated within the therapy room? Have you undergone any personal therapy?

Critical Incident Debriefing [starts at 26:11 mins]

In this week’s ‘Practice Matters’, Rory speaks with Karen Moore about Critical Incident debriefing.

The main points of this discussion include:

• Critical Incident debriefing is a sharp end of counselling and psychotherapy.
• It requires you to travel to where an incident has taken place and work with a group of people.
• You will only step in 48 hours after an incident to allow people some time to process events independently first.
• You are there to offer psychoeducation and help people understand their own reactions and bodily responses to an event.
• You will help people put things into chronological order and know what to do going forward.
• You offer a level of understanding that can help individuals to process what happened.
• You may need to deal with conflicts that might come from not understanding another person’s reaction to the event.
• You will most likely recommend that individuals undergo their own personal therapy if they feel they could benefit from it.
• You will need to be prepared and able to think on your feet.
• There may be instances where people begin to blame each other, and a group becomes fragmented.
• Your role is more about debriefing the situation than talking about feelings – this should be taken up in personal therapy afterwards.
• Groups should be separated by proximity to the incident to avoid vicarious trauma.
• Let managers know how the group might be feeling and what they might need going forward.
• You may encounter people experiencing moral injury/moral fracture if they have had to make a very difficult moral decision.
• Self-care and supervision are very important to ensure your own health and well-being after being so close to traumatic situations.

The Importance of your ‘Why’ [starts at 50:35 mins]

Sometimes you can become discouraged during your studies, and it’s at times like this when you should remember what you’re doing it for. In this section, Rory and Ken discuss the importance of your ‘why’:

• Your ‘why’ is the foundation and motivation for your practice.
• It can help you when things get tough or challenging.
• It’s not a goal – your ‘why’ isn’t something measurable or achievable.
• You might change, as might your views, through the arc of your training but your ‘why’ will remain the same.
• If you feel like you might want to give up – revisit your ‘why’.
• Think about your motivation for going through with your counselling training, what are you doing it for?
• When your ‘why’ is strong, the ‘how’ becomes easier.

Links and Resources

• Karen Moore
• Counselling Skills Academy
• Advanced Certificate in Counselling Supervision
• Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide
• Counsellor CPD
• Counselling Study Resource
• Counselling Theory in Practice: A Student Guide
• Counselling Tutor Shop
• Facebook group
• Website
• Online and Telephone Counselling: A Practitioner’s Guide
• Online and Telephone Counselling Course