Skills for Helping People in Pain and Crisis

This knowledge is especially helpful when we face the feelings of inadequacy that such pain can engender. It also helps the feelings of guilt or defensiveness that can arise when there are issues of gender (a man working with a woman who has been assaulted), class and other privilege (a financially secure person working with a homeless person, a well person working with a sick person), sexual orientation ( a straight person working with an AIDS patient), race and other discrimination.

When we are open and present, we augment the resources of a person in pain. We sidestep the tendency to “self-refer”, i.e. focusing on ourselves, trying to think of the right thing do, worried about our performance, our anxieties, our feelings of helplessness. We trust instead in the call that has brought us to this unique moment of time. Just being ourselves is enough, as we enter the moment knowing we belong there. next