[cowboy87]

I suffer from general anxiety disorder and at times from PTSD (I witnessed a homicide). I have applied and got accepted for a crisis hot line position. I want your feedback. What can I do to help people going through a crisis that will help make things easier?

What do you need to hear?
What do you expect?
What questions do you want me to ask?
How can I get you thinking clearly again, do I just need to let you vent, or do you need me to help walk you out of the quicksand?

Your feedback means a lot to me.

Are they giving you any training? Most lines have rules on what you can say & can't for legal liability.

[Crookedspin]

Originally Posted by cowboy87

I suffer from general anxiety disorder and at times from PTSD (I witnessed a homicide). I have applied and got accepted for a crisis hot line position. I want your feedback. What can I do to help people going through a crisis that will help make things easier?

What do you need to hear?
What do you expect?
What questions do you want me to ask?
How can I get you thinking clearly again, do I just need to let you vent, or do you need me to help walk you out of the quicksand?

Your feedback means a lot to me.

Hey Cowboy, Congrats on getting this position. I imagine they're going to have a pretty extensive training, I'd be really surprised if they didn't (shocked actually), and so if you feel a bit left to your own devices right now, I don't think you will be. One thing that I know I would really like is authenticity--no promises that things are going to get better, no "fixing" (unless I ask), no formulaic risk assessment and no pushing me toward services I don't want. I try to do this stuff with others to whom I listen and I think they appreciate it.
I was in distress a few weeks ago and called the very well-known hotline no, publicized in a chart-topping song a little while ago and I'd say all 4 of these were violated within 3 minutes by someone who sounded nice and attentive in the way that a gracious store employee might be I said thanks and ended the call. I wanted to be heard, validated, and to share a moment with another human being. Wasn't going to happen on this call. Now, I'm not sure how much room there is for that on these hotlines, which I imagine require their volunteers to assess risk, suggest services, etc. So, what I'm suggesting as helpful characteristics of listening may be only possible in a limited way. If you're looking for suggestions I guess I'm saying keep in mind the potential conflict between the things I mentioned and any "agenda" you might have to maintain when taking a call. Those are my thoughts, anyway. Despite my kind of critical stance in this post, this is of course an opportunity to do amazing work of the most important kind and I hope it goes well. I appreciate very much your willingness to do this work!