#44 A look into Mobile Crisis in New Jersey with Sean Cullen, LPC

08/14/20 • 22 min

Sean Cullen is a Licensed Professional Counselor and was one of my first interviews last year before I graduated with my doctorate from Rutgers School of Social Work. So, if the sound is less than perfect, please forgive those imperfections. I wanted to release this podcast because Sean discusses how to effectively work with law enforcement in dealing with mobile psychiatric crisis situations in the community. This requires extensive training, but when done right, it can be an extremely beneficial and life-saving service.

Sean is extensively trained and has over 19 years of experience working in emergency community settings as a Mobile Crisis Screener in Morris County, New Jersey. Sean is also a Medical and Psychiatric Clinician at one New Jersey’s best hospital systems, and actually took over for me when I left this hospital to pursue my doctoral work.

Mobile Crisis is the provision of emergency mental health services in the home. If you are concerned about yourself, a family member, or a friend who is experiencing a psychiatric crisis, you can request a Mobile Crisis team to provide mental health intervention and support in the home to help overcome resistance to treatment (Goldman, 2015). Mobile crisis teams can provide mental health engagement, intervention and follow-up support to help overcome resistance to treatment.

Depending on what a person is willing to accept, the teams may offer a range of services, including: Assessment, Crisis intervention, Supportive counseling, Information and referrals, including to community-based mental health services, and Transport to Psychiatric Emergency Room.

If a mobile crisis team determines that a person in crisis needs further psychiatric or medical assessment, they can transport that person to a hospital psychiatric emergency room. Mobile crisis teams may direct police to take a person to an emergency room against their will only if they have a mental illness (or the appearance of mental illness) and are a danger to themselves or others.

TherapyShow.com/Podcasts

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for getting help from a mental health professional.

TherapyShow.com/Podcasts

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for getting help from a mental health professional.

Previous Episode

#43 Dr. Richard Schwartz on Internal Family Systems and How We Are the 'Sum of Our Parts'

Dr. Richard Schwartz earned his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University and is the founder of the therapeutic modality Internal Family Systems. Dr. Schwartz is also the founder of The Center for Self Leadership where professionals and the general public can attend workshops and trainings. Dr. Schwartz is the author of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the US. Dr. Schwartz is also the author of Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model. Dr. Schwartz has also released a new audiobook, Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts: Discovering Your True Self Through Internal Family Systems Therapy.

IFS model of psychotherapy offers a clear, non-pathologizing, and empowering method of understanding human problems. IFS uses family systems theory—the idea that individuals cannot be fully understood in isolation from the family unit—to develop techniques and strategies to effectively address issues within a person’s internal family. This evidence-based approach assumes that each individual possesses a variety of sub-personalities or parts, with each part serving a particular role. Often, these internal parts are produced by the individual psyche in response to traumatic experience.

These parts attempt to control and protect from the pain of the wounded parts and are often in conflict with each other and with one’s core Self. This undamaged core Self is the essence of the Self and represents the seat of consciousness with many positive qualities such as calmness, compassion, consecutiveness, confidence and leadership. For example, in alcoholic families, children often take on protective roles because of the dysfunction in the family. Some children may also take on maladaptive roles, such as the mascot, lost child, or scapegoat. In all of these cases, these roles are not the true nature of the children. These children are adapting to the chaos and upheaval that is common in the alcoholic family. A similar process occurs with internal families, where internal parts take on extreme roles caused by traumatic experiences. IFS can help transform these parts into positive internal family members.

There are three distinct types of parts in the IFS model:

Managers are responsible for warding off painful experiences and emotions in order to function in everyday life.

Exiles are often in a state of pain or trauma, which result from childhood experiences. Managers and firefighters exile these parts and prevent them from reaching the conscious level.

Firefighters distract the mind when exiles can no longer be suppressed. In order to protect from feeling the pain of the exiles, firefighters make a person act impulsively and engage in behaviors such as addictive, abusive or self-harming such as alcohol, drugs, sex, or even work.

Managers and Firefighters play the Protectors role, while Exiles are the parts needing protection.

Re-released from 2019

Dr. Richard Schwartz on Twitter: @DickSchwartzCSL

TherapyShow.com/Podcasts

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for getting help from a mental health professional.

Next Episode

#45 Dr. Myrna Weissman on Interpersonal Psychotherapy: a Time Sensitive Evidence-Based Therapy

Dr. Myrna Weissman is a Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Chief of the Division of Translational Epidemiology at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Weissman, along with her late husband Dr. Gerald Klerman, founded the therapeutic model of Interpersonal Psychotherapy. She is the author or a co-author of over 600 scientific articles and chapters and 12 books. Her most recent book is The Guide to Interpersonal Psychotherapy, which was published with her late husband Gerald Klerman, as well as John Markowitz.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy focuses on social roles and relationships and is a time-limited course of treatment for depression and other mental disorders, which strengthens relationships and social supports in order to improve an individual’s mood and functioning. IPT generally lasts 12–16 weeks, with the timeframe agreed upon by therapist and client at the beginning of the treatment. IPT addresses swiftly the following problem areas in order to reduce symptoms: interpersonal disputes, role transitions, grief and loss, and interpersonal sensitivities (or deficits).

Interpersonal Psychotherapy on Twitter: @ipt_is

TherapyShow.com/Podcasts

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for getting help from a mental health professional.