#161 Crisis Definition and Assessment
How would you define a crisis, and how would you use the BASIC acronym to assess a person in crisis?
A crisis is the point at which a change occurs that shakes a person to their core. Using the BASIC acronym it is possible to observe if someone is experiencing a crisis. B refers to behavior patterns such as the person acting differently now. A is the affective feelings, “What feelings or inner responses have they experienced?” (Wright, 2011, p. 153). Through conversion words can be given to the emotions the counselee is experiencing. S is for physical symptoms. This is one of the more easily identifiable things that can be used to help determine a crisis from first glance. I is interpersonal, this is where you get an idea of their support system. The last part is C for cognition. Cognition refers to where their minds are at.
Using your definition and assessment tool, choose a biblical character facing a crisis and conceptualize their crisis utilizing the assessment tool: Behavior patterns, Affective functioning, Symptoms, Interpersonal functioning, and Cognition (BASIC).
A biblical character that sticks out to me that experienced a crisis is Jesus. Even though Jesus knew what was coming He still experienced great anguish leading up to His crucifixion. My definition of a crisis is the point at which a change occurs that shakes a person to their core. With that in mind we can use the BASIC model and the Bible to determine if what Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemane was a crisis. His behavior changed, He was sleepless and took His disciples to pray. Jesus told the disciples “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death” in Matthew 26:38 (NASB) this shows His affective functioning (McQuilkin and Copan, 2014, p. 33). One of the physical symptoms of Jesus was His tears of blood. While Jesus had a good support system in the form of disciples none were able to stay awake with Him, leaving Jesus alone in His crisis. Finally Jesus’s cognition seems to be fatalistic and aligned with that of the Father when He says “yet not as I will, but as You will” Matthew 26:39. The phases of crises also align with Jesus’s experience. The first two phases come back to back in the garden. In the impact phase “You know immediately that you have been confronted with a major happening” (Wright, 2011, p. 143) and then the confusion phase follows. I may be wrong, but I think for Jesus the adjustment phase comes when Jesus stands before the sanhedrin. The final phase follows when Jesus is resurrected.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
Robertson McQuilkin and Paul Copan, An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom, Third edition (IVP, 2014), 33.
Wright, H. N. (2011). The complete guide to crisis & trauma counseling: What to do and say when it matters most! Regal.
