The following notes come from “Youth Violence: Theory, Prevention, and Intervention” by Kathryn Seifert, which I read before participating in the SAVRY (Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth). Youth Violence – Prevalence and Trends Four Types of Violence Situational Relationship Predatory Psychopathological There are two types of violence, instrumental and reactive violence. The goal of…
Category: Counselling and Service Delivery
Non-Suicidal Self Injury (NSSI)
Non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) is the professional name for a number of forms of self-injury. Self-injury is a very common mental and physical health issue affecting many populations, but especially young people and trauma survivors. Types of self-injury include: Cutting Embedding objects under the skin Biting Scratching Skin-carving Hitting Head banging Interfering with…
Active Listening on Crisis Lines
The core of emotional support, which is the service provided on crisis lines, is called active listening. Active listening is a special type of listening, distinct from the regular listening we do everyday. Active listening should also be separated from the work that counsellors and therapists do, which is called professional listening. While therapists and counsellors certainly…
What Makes a Good Crisis Line Volunteer
So, you want to become a crisis line, or suicide hotline volunteer. Congratulations! Not a lot of people feel like they’re able to do this work. It’s very difficult to spend hours alone in the middle of the night listening to someone talk about their depression, or about feeling suicidal, relationship issues, or all the…
Beginnings of an Online Crisis Chat Service
On June 29th, the Distress Centres of Dufferin/Wellington, Durham, Peel and Toronto joined together to launch an online crisis chat service. Texting through an unadvertised shortcode based on a service in the US or visiting our website provides access to a trained volunteer responder between 2pm and 2am. After running the service for a few…