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Crisis intervention counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen,
Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical crisis intervention counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for crisis intervention counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.6% of crisis intervention counselor resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a crisis intervention counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 crisis intervention counselor skills for your resume and career

1. Social Work

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use social work:
  • Create close working relationship with police officers/detectives, school social workers, probation officers, and hospital social workers.
  • Work closely with the Social Worker to coordinate educational plans for the student.

2. Behavioral Problems

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use behavioral problems:
  • Licensed psychologist consultant, crisis intervention and counseling psychology interventions with students with behavioral problems.
  • Improved school performance through the reduction of behavioral problems.

3. Safety Planning

Safety рlаnnіng іѕ a рrосеѕѕ оf evaluating the rіѕkѕ and bеnеfіtѕ of various орtіоnѕ аnd identifying ways tо rеduсе the rіѕkѕ should an adverse event arise. This іnсludеѕ planning fоr a futurе crisis, rеvіеwіng оnеѕ орtіоnѕ, аnd mаkіng dесіѕіоnѕ аbоut whаt to dо nеxt.

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use safety planning:
  • Provided crisis intervention, advocacy, safety planning and case management services to victims.
  • Provided informed intake and DV counseling and support including safety planning.

4. Mental Health Crisis

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use mental health crisis:
  • Provide mental health crisis intervention to clients presenting with substance abuse, mental illness and trauma related issues.
  • Provide crisis intervention services to those in a mental health crisis and/or at risk to themselves or others.

5. Hotline Calls

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use hotline calls:
  • Provide administrative support in areas of office coverage, hotline calls, and clerical work.
  • Volunteered at the Women's Center of Montgomery County by taking hotline calls.

6. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use child abuse:
  • Provide crisis counseling, advocacy, education and referrals for survivors of DV, stalking, sexual assault and child abuse.
  • Accompanied survivors of sexual violence and child abuse at the hospital, police station, and during court appearances.

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7. Emergency Room

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use emergency room:
  • Provided crisis intervention counseling to patients in 13 Chicago area emergency rooms.
  • Provided emergency room intervention and assessment to clients referred for psychiatric evaluation.

8. Crisis Assessment

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use crisis assessment:
  • Performed crisis assessment and intake.
  • Provide crisis assessments using Involuntary Treatment Act to determine if individuals meet legal criteria for involuntary hospitalization.

9. Suicide Prevention

Suicide prevention is a collective effort focused on mental health to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide prevention efforts can be carried out at an individual, community, society, or relationship level. It aims to enhance the mental and psychological health of an individual to remove suicidal thoughts or tendecies.

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use suicide prevention:
  • Completed 60 hours mandatory training in suicide prevention
  • Provided suicide prevention and intervention services via telephone and to walk-ins.

10. Intake Interviews

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use intake interviews:
  • Conducted intake interviews, collected and monitored demographic data.
  • Conducted intake interviews and counseling of youth in crisis with local law enforcement agencies.

11. Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is the task of certain members of the community who work together to uphold the law by identifying, preventing, rehabilitating, or prosecuting others who break society's laws and norms. The phrase refers to the police, the judiciary, and the correctional system.

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use law enforcement:
  • Accompany survivors to forensic medical exams, investigative interviews by law enforcement, children's advocacy centers and court appearances.
  • Worked with law enforcement personnel in successfully diffusing crisis situations.

12. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pattern of violent, intimidating, or abusive behavior in any relationship committed by someone within the victim's circle - partner, ex-partner, parents, family, and friends, to gain or maintain power and control over the victim. This can be emotional, sexual, social, financial, economic, psychological, spiritual, and/or physical abuse.

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use domestic violence:
  • Completed 40-hour domestic violence intervention training- Performed campus outreach and promoted awareness of intimate partner violence and stalking.
  • Conducted face-to-face individual and group counseling sessions pertaining to domestic violence.

13. Sexual Assault

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use sexual assault:
  • Assisted sexual assault victims to the ER, supported them through police interviews, Crown/District Attorney interviews, court, etc.
  • Conducted educational lectures on spouse abuse and sexual assault to area churches, universities and social service organizations.

14. Crisis Situations

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use crisis situations:
  • Worked with adolescents during crisis situations in a residential treatment facility school setting.
  • Recognized and responded to crisis situations via telephone.

15. Mental Health Issues

Here's how crisis intervention counselors use mental health issues:
  • Provided comprehensive case management to families with mental health issues.
  • Provided nightly supervision to 30 residents living with mental health issues and assisted individuals with accurate medication ingestion
top-skills

What skills help Crisis Intervention Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on crisis intervention counselor resumes?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

In Mental Health Counseling, the ability to work with people from various cultural backgrounds is paramount. Training in multicultural psychology, diversity, and inclusion are all essential in our pluralistic society. I would also emphasize training in empirically supported treatments and a clear theoretical orientation grounded in scientific literature. Finally, the recent pandemic has accelerated the use of teletherapy and remote counseling--effectiveness in connecting with people through technology and making the most of an adapted model for therapy will be very important.

What soft skills should all crisis intervention counselors possess?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills are important, including openness to work with people with varying religious views. The ability to easily connect with others and put people at ease in your presence is valuable in working with clients and collaborating with a treatment team. As more and more agencies interact with the medical field, spiritual leaders, and other holistic approaches to health, counselors need to see their role in an interdisciplinary approach to healing and work effectively with other departments. With teletherapy/virtual therapy, just the simple difficulty of creating eye contact when one's camera is not directly aligned with their viewscreen can complicate important connections in the therapeutic relationship. Learning to effectively connect through screens is essential.

What hard/technical skills are most important for crisis intervention counselors?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What crisis intervention counselor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Ines Jindra

Associate Professor of Social Work, BASW Program Director, Idaho State University

With a BASW in social work, you are eligible for generalist, entry-level positions. In order to maximize your salary potential, look out for training opportunities, and consider going back for an MSW degree in social work a few years down the line (since for many social work positions, you will need an MSW degree).

What type of skills will young crisis intervention counselors need?

Chris Hennington Ph.D.Chris Hennington Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

School Counseling Program Coordinator, Lubbock Christian University

School counselors will be tasked with the usual school counseling responsibilities while also encountering trauma that students experience outside of school and in school. Being well versed in trauma response is going to be a vital aspect of being a school counselor. Kids are experiencing more trauma, but we are getting better at recognizing and treating trauma as well.

What technical skills for a crisis intervention counselor stand out to employers?

Dr. Chantrelle Varnado-Johnson

Assistant Professor & Coordinator of School Counseling Program, Nicholls State University

In addition, recent graduates will need to be familiarized with using telehealth platforms due to more remote learning needs. Plus, recent graduates will need to familiarize themselves with their basic facilitative skills to establish rapport quickly to have brief sessions. Also, I would recommend students receive competency-based credentials and become licensed in at least one additional state. Lastly, I would recommend students familiarize themselves with crisis intervention and trauma counseling.

In sum, graduates have to be aware of how their roles may shift due to job displacement, furloughs, and restructuring. Due to new challenges presented in the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates have to be prepared to address the possibility of being faced with high caseloads, secondary traumatization, role conflict/ambiguity, and tension in the workplace. As a precautionary measure, neophytes should adopt a holistic self-care regimen and professional network to ameliorate the mental health condition.

List of crisis intervention counselor skills to add to your resume

Crisis intervention counselor skills

The most important skills for a crisis intervention counselor resume and required skills for a crisis intervention counselor to have include:

  • Social Work
  • Behavioral Problems
  • Safety Planning
  • Mental Health Crisis
  • Hotline Calls
  • Child Abuse
  • Emergency Room
  • Crisis Assessment
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Intake Interviews
  • Law Enforcement
  • Domestic Violence
  • Sexual Assault
  • Crisis Situations
  • Mental Health Issues
  • Community Services
  • Mental Illness
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Community Agencies
  • Crisis Calls
  • Emotional Support
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Referral Services
  • Risk Assessments
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Anger Management
  • CPR
  • Social Service Agencies
  • Clinical Assessments
  • Early Intervention
  • Emergency Services
  • Discharge Planning
  • Mental Health
  • Police Station
  • IEP
  • at-Risk Youth
  • Community Resources
  • Stress Management
  • Medication Management
  • Court Appearances
  • Local Agencies
  • Eating Disorders
  • HIV
  • Psychosis
  • CBT
  • Alcohol Abuse

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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