Description
November 18-20, 2025 | 8:00am-5:00pm
FREE | 24 contact hours
IN PERSON at Maine Resiliency Center, Lewiston, ME
**NOTE: This training is FREE but requires a refundable deposit to hold your spot due to very limited space. If you attend the training, you will receive a refund on the last day of class**
Want to attend this training virtually on October 7-9 instead? Sign up HERE!
Description:
For over 30 years, the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc (ICISF) has addressed the wellness of those who make us safe through pre-incident peer support mental health training to law enforcement, Fire and EMS, military, educators, healthcare providers and other community stakeholders. ICISF courses in Crisis Intervention are in the forefront of delivering quality Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Peer Support training designed to help individuals deal with normal reactions to abnormal events.
Critical incidents are unusually challenging events that have the potential to create significant human distress and can overwhelm one’s usual coping mechanisms. Critical incidents profoundly affect individuals and often the communities causing fear and uncertainty and contradict the belief that our locality is a safe and secure environment.
Objectives:
At the end of this workshop, the learner will be able to:
1. Understand and discuss the natures & definitions of a psychological crisis and intervention.
2. Understand and discuss the resistance, resiliency, recovery continuum.
3. Understand and discuss the natural and definition of critical incident stress management and its role as a continuum of care.
4. Practice basic crisis communication techniques.
5. Discuss the use of the “diamond structure” in crisis communications.
6. Recognize common psychological and behavioral crisis reactions.
7. Explain the putative and empirically-derived mechanisms of action in psychological crisis intervention.
8. Practice the SAFER-revised model of individual psychological crisis intervention.
9. Understand and discuss how the SAFER-revised model may be altered for suicide intervention.
10. Understand and discuss the risks of iatrogenic “harm” associated with psychological crisis intervention and how to reduce those risks.
11. Explain the differences between informational and interactive group crisis intervention procedures.
12. Practice Informational Group Crisis Interventions a) Rest, Information, and Transition Services, and b) Crisis Management Briefing
13. Practice Interactive Group Crisis Interventions a) Defusing, and b) Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
Presenter:
Denise J. Thompson, LISW, CPC, CCISM, is the founder of Crisis Response Consulting and The Coach Alliance. While managing her own businesses, from April 2019 to August 2024, Denise was the Director, Resiliency & Peer Support and Director, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) for Bexar County Emergency Services District 7, San Antonio, TX. In this Denise provided support to her own Department and to first responder agencies and healthcare organizations in a 13-county area. Denise provided in-person and virtual peer support, coordinated CISM responses, mental health referrals and taught a variety of courses, including Critical Incident Stress Management courses, Mental Health First Aid, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and First Responder Chaplaincy courses.
Denise received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Wartburg College, Waverly, IA, a Master of Social Work from Florida 0State University, Tallahassee, FL and is a trained Certified Professional Coach through the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching. Denise is a Veteran of the US Air Force and Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), retiring as a Colonel. In her military positions, Denise was responsible for the implementation and oversight of the following programs: Suicide and Violence Prevention, Post-Suicide Review, CISM, Operational and Post-deployment Stress and Sexual Assault Response Program. From 1997 to 2006, she provided oversight and training for over 200 AFRC personnel, military and civilian, who were part of the AFRC CISM team. Denise deployed to Iraq in 2008 and in 2009 to Kuwait. Denise finished her career as the Mental Health Consultant to the 25th Air Force Surgeon General, providing resiliency and operational stress management support to Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance personnel. Prior to September 11, 2001, when Denise was mobilized back to Active Duty, she was a Reserve Medical Officer and in private practice working with adults and children affected by traumatic events; a contract provider for the Veterans’ Administration, and an Employee Assistance Program provider for the US Postal Service. Denise is the Director and Clinical Coordinator for the Alamo Regional Response Team serving a 13-county region surrounding San Antonio. This team also provides mutual aid support throughout Texas. Denise presents on a variety of topics for first responders and civilian personnel regarding suicide prevention, intervention and postvention, workplace violence, CISM, combat/operational stress management, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sexual assault prevention and response. She teaches several International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) courses, is an ICISF faculty member, and co-authored the ICISF Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention course. Denise has provided crisis intervention and organizational consultation following airplane and helicopter crashes, active-shooter incidents, homicides, suicides, line-of-duty deaths, manmade and natural disasters, robberies, and combat.
Contact hours:
24 contact hours for social workers, licensed clinical professional counselors, and behavioral health professionals
24 category I contact hours for psychologists. CCSME is a pre-approved sponsor and provider of Professional Education Activities for Psychologists.
24 contact hours for drug and alcohol counselors. This course has been approved by CCSME, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for 24 educational credits. NAADAC Provider #324712. CCSME is responsible for all aspects of the programming.
24 contact hours for CHES. CCSME is a designated provider of continuing education contact hours (CECH) in health education by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.
