At first glance, any crisis seems like the end of the world. But if you look into it and rethink everything, it can become the basis for growth. Psychotherapist Ekaterina Sigitova in her book “The Perfect Storm” tells how to get out of a crisis without trauma and with new opportunities.
About the book
The book “The Perfect Storm” by psychotherapist Ekaterina Sigitova suggests finding your own route out of any crisis. The book contains exercises that will help you go through the whole path step by step: survive grief, get rid of trauma, accept a new reality, rebuild yourself and use experience for your development.
We are publishing the chapter “Checklist for successfully overcoming the crisis.”
The basis of all crises - global, personal, financial, psychological, life - is the same. Something has changed outside, but inside, where the crack and pain arises, it has not yet. The inertia of the usual continues. Therefore, the way out of the crisis begins where it is possible to slow down this inertia of the usual.
Slow down, change gears, come up with something new, step aside, or stop altogether. After this stop, you can already come to one zone with reality: yeah, this is reality now, and we now act a little differently than before. That is why any crises are somewhat existential. Whatever they are - economic, global, age, and so on, it is always about the state of the soul and about the transformation of a person.
Until we let the crisis pass through ourselves, we cannot resolve it. If a crisis does not require passing through oneself, then, as a rule, it is not really a crisis; it's more of a small challenge or challenge or growing pain.
A typical feeling for a crisis, indicating that it is a crisis, is hopelessness.
When it seems that everything is bad: this is bad, and that is bad, there is no way out, everything is decaying and nothing is clear. Hopelessness means that with the situation you have, you cannot get out of the crisis. And that's okay. If you could, the crisis would not have arisen. If it has arisen, it means that the old way of living no longer suits you. And hopelessness is a completely natural reaction to this.
Therefore, it is normal to periodically feel that everything is decay - this means that the crisis is not over yet. You ask: “But how can we see opportunities in a crisis if hopelessness is normal and there is no way out of the feeling of decay?”
The traumatic contribution of a crisis (what we get hurt and broken by) is a forced experience, which is paid for with your suffering, problems and experiences. You didn't sign up for this experience, but you're already getting it and you're already paying for it, which is why I used the word “forced.”
You have already absorbed all the negativity with your own forehead, and you already feel very bad - this is your forced price for the opportunity to gain new experience. This is the point at which experience, once it has already been gained, can be sown like a seed and grown further. You can try to use this experience, use it for your own growth and development. <…>
What points or processes must be completed for us to consider that the crisis has been overcome? Moreover, it was overcome not by rolling back, but in a normal, environmentally friendly, healthy, natural way. Let's figure it out.
The first point that I put as the main one: learning has occurred
That is, on the basis of the crisis, some conclusions were drawn and, perhaps, changes were outlined that were needed to survive this crisis or a similar one in the future. The psyche has learned something.
Of course, there will be a bit of a tutorial in each of the points below as well. The essence of point No. 1 is that, firstly, the new experience was acquired on its own, even if it was from the series “Everything you didn’t want to know and weren’t going to ask.”
And secondly, it turns out that our head can process this not at all as: “Oh God, why am I doing this, everything is bad, forget it as quickly as possible!” - but something like educational material: “Hmm, now I have new knowledge and experience, now it’s clear how I worry when... (fill in what is needed).” Previously there was no such experience, but now there is, and it is used as a basis for learning, and not just as a basis for suffering.
Psychological characteristics of crisis states. Helping strategies.
Teacher-psychologists of the mediation department
Shkryabina O.N., Klyushova O.V.
Crisis state
- this is a psychological state of maximum disintegration and disadaptation of the individual, expressed in the loss of basic life guidelines (values, basic motivation, behavioral patterns, i.e. the usual image of the Self, “Self-concept”) and arising as a result of obstacles in the usual course of the subject’s life.
In the structure of a crisis state, four main components can be distinguished:
— information uncertainty, which inevitably gives rise to anxiety;
- emotional stress, including anxiety, depression and hostility in its structure;
— potential for development and growth;
-existential aspects of experience.
In an acute crisis, it seems possible to distinguish 4 successive stages:
1) stage of psychotrauma (“mental shock”) – lasts from several hours to 2–3 days;
2) stage of disorganization - lasts from one day to two weeks;
3) the “acceptance” (adaptation) stage – lasts several weeks;
4) recovery stage – lasts from several weeks to several months.
Situations leading to a certain crisis state:
- stressful events (traumas, disasters, wars, loss of loved ones, etc.), provoking various types of crisis reactions (acute reaction to stress up to reactive psychosis), delayed reaction to stress from 2 months to 1 year (post-traumatic stress disorder) and super delayed reaction to stress (shock trauma);
— transition to the next age level (age crises);
— transition to a new stage of individualization (existential crises).
Usually a person can overcome a crisis on his own. At the beginning of a crisis, tension and anxiety increase, then problem-solving strategies are activated. All psychological and physical resources are used to resolve the crisis and alleviate the condition. During this period, the person is receptive to the most minimal assistance and can greatly benefit from simple support and a listening ear. Therefore, a crisis state does not fall into the category of painful disorders; it is a normal human reaction to abnormal events.
In the process of overcoming a crisis, a person can gain new experience and expand the range of adaptive reactions. On the other hand, if a person is inclined to react to a crisis with maladaptive reactions, the crisis may deepen and the painful condition may intensify. The development of clinical symptoms causes new maladaptive reactions that can become catastrophic and lead to severe mental disorders, death or suicide.
A person who finds himself in a protracted state of crisis finds that his ordered, carefully constructed world has become shaky and uncertain. All the usual ways in which he copes with life's difficulties are questioned, and he is forced to look for new ways to solve problems, develop new ways of behavior that may be more effective than previous ones.
What these methods will be depends largely on who he turns to for help.
Crisis therapy within the psychological approach is based on the following principles:
— there are no special crisis technologies and practices,
— crisis care may exclude the use of psychopharmacology,
- the main strategy for helping an individual and a group in a state of crisis is to explain the fact that everything that happens to a person in this state is normal and has its own meaning,
— the main tactic when working with existential crisis states is support, and nothing more.
The overwhelming majority of types of crisis assistance are currently of a group nature. This is due to the fact that during crises, it is a person’s social adaptation that suffers the most damage, which manifests itself in the form of socio-psychological frustration (“I can’t do anything”, “Nobody needs me”, “What I did all the time”). life is meaningless”, “People are not given the ability to understand each other”, etc.).
Psychologically, this state finds expression in the form of an all-consuming feeling of loneliness, non-participation in the world of the people around him (“Nobody understands me”, “I am completely alone in this world”, “Nobody needs me and I don’t need anyone”, etc.) . The situation of joint (group) experience of such strong emotional states is of a therapeutic, corrective nature due to the fact that any group is a kind of “small society” that understands and accepts the state of the individual as natural and transitory. However, individual forms of counseling and psychotherapy for crisis situations also continue to develop and improve.
The absence of specific “crisis technologies and techniques” is associated with the uniqueness of each person’s experience of the crisis.
The basis of both group and individual psychological assistance in a crisis situation is made up of three basic principles: safety (as an opportunity for change), resource (strength for change), creativity (new ways of change).
Why has art therapy been given pride of place among other approaches and methods in working with crisis conditions?
As practice shows, when working with a crisis, “techniques” are needed that would meet the following requirements:
- to be completely new, having no analogues in the usual activities of the individual and group members;
- induce in the individual a state of maximum creativity;
- influence the psyche at a deep level and, so to speak, “globally.”
All these requirements are perfectly met by the rapidly developing strategy of healing through art, or art therapy, in recent years. Possessing a number of specific features, it effectively contributes to the restoration of the integrity of the individual, his recovery from the state of disintegration (and disintegration, as mentioned above, serves as one of the main psychological “symptoms” of the crisis being experienced). However, the main feature of art therapy is its ability to awaken and develop creativity in every person.
Actualized creativity as a personal characteristic (and we understand that all people without exception are potentially endowed with this ability, since otherwise a person simply would not be able to live) is a powerful resource in critical life situations.
When working with people experiencing an internal crisis, methods aimed at direct dialogue with the unconscious become relevant. Their goal is to give a suffering person the opportunity to hear his inner voice, accept the inevitability of what is happening to him, and find peace within himself. When the state of internal emptiness and chaos is destroyed, liberation from destruction occurs, and the path to healing (restoration of psychological integrity) begins.
The basis for completing work with a person is not only a change in his condition in a positive direction, but also his obvious personal growth.
Sources used:
1. Vasilyuk F. E. Psychology of experience (analysis of overcoming critical situations). - M.: Publishing house Moscow. Univ., 1984;
2. Graf S., Graf K. (editors and compilers). Spiritual crisis: when personality transformation becomes a crisis. - M.: TPI-Class, 1999.
Point six: plan for self-help
It is also called a crisis plan. There are methods on this topic, although this plan does not have to be drawn up according to any method. It could be just an idea or a bunch of ideas about what you should do if you get into trouble, and what will help you both when you get out of the current crisis, and if something similar happens to you again.
In general, at the exit from each crisis, notes should be formed: if this happens again, I will do this and that, but now I need this and that.
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Provide support
Constantly working with clients, even in calm times, is emotionally very stressful. During a crisis it becomes even more intense. Therefore, it is important to support those employees who are on the front line.
1. Consider customer support. Try to minimize employee stress. Keep them informed of changes in a timely manner. Employees with up-to-date information provide quality support.
2. Be careful with automation. It really helps reduce the workload on staff. But a crisis is not the time to experiment with automated responses. Use tools wisely. This will save time, which the team can use to more thoroughly process requests from clients.
3. Collect information and adapt it to different resources. Team leaders must listen to customer conversations, look for recurring questions that were not addressed in instructions and scripts, and update answers in programs to better respond to customer requests.
And the seventh and final point: healing has begun.
Something in your life is getting better. Of course, you are still being tossed back and forth, but nevertheless a process has clearly begun: for example, everything that happened is no longer perceived so acutely. This is a signal that healing has begun. Like a wound on the skin: even if you cut yourself in the wrong place, where the skin is very stretched and the wound is constantly opening, it will still begin to heal someday.
The wound may not be completely healed by the time the crisis comes out, it will heal later, but healing must begin - this is important. A symptom of healing that has begun, for example, may be that you have regained interest in ordinary life or in something new that is not related to the crisis itself and its consequences.
All sorts of heavy processes began to subside, space became free, and the first green shoots began to emerge from the fire.
Crisis of a bygone era - 50+ years
The third crisis usually occurs at pre-retirement age. The time to retire is close, but has not yet come; the person is in good health, has a bright mind, has vast accumulated experience and expertise... but is faced with a stereotypical opinion about his capabilities. And not only from the employer’s side - often a person begins to doubt himself, believing that his time has passed, and he definitely won’t be able to keep up with the younger generation (spoiler: he doesn’t have to).
Older professionals are often written off. It is believed that their minds are no longer so flexible and fast, learning everything new will take a lot of time, and it is much easier to teach a young person who grasps everything right on the fly. The most correct strategy of behavior in this case is not to try to defeat youth with its own weapons; the emphasis should be placed on your own strengths, the advantages that time has given you.
Age 50+ is the ideal time to change the vector of application of your professional skills. An older specialist earns money not through agility or energy, obsessed with seething motivation, but through expertise and baggage. Useful connections, practical experience in solving various difficult situations, unique knowledge that is not in textbooks, but which is developed over years of practice - this is what you should focus on when competing for a job.
Of course, if, having reached the third career crisis, you still want to work for someone. Life certainly doesn't end at 50 - and this is the best time to consider whether you really want to continue offering all this experience and knowledge to someone else, but not yourself. For inspiration: Donald Fisher founded The Gap after 40, Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species at age 50, and Julia Child's celebrity chef debut came at age 51 when she shared a book about the art of French cooking with the world.
In all these years of career racing, you've probably done enough to help others succeed. Of course, you can continue to do this further, in the format of mentoring or coaching; another option is to go into entrepreneurship and open your own bakery, which you have dreamed of all your life. Why not?
What could be the crisis management action plans?
When the property situation and financial and economic activities of the company have been assessed, the financial director begins to prepare an anti-crisis action plan. Its form depends on the complexity of the situation, the structure of assets and liabilities, and the type of activity of the organization.
- Company development plan.
- Reduction plan/liquidation plan.
- Stabilization/Financial Recovery Plan.
- Diversification plan.
- Plan for concentration and integration.
- Special plans.
It establishes the actions necessary for the development of the company through activities such as the creation or, conversely, the reduction of new offers.
In addition, this anti-crisis action plan outlines in detail the ways to enter new positions in the main areas.
It indicates all the elements that the company needs to abandon in order to adapt to modern market conditions, without losing the main potential of the enterprise, industry, or region. Thus, outdated or unpopular products among consumers are discontinued, the company enters new markets, closure, sale, or reorganization of production units are possible, work in innovation and investment areas is reduced, personnel are retrained, and some personnel are fired. If a company is declared bankrupt by a court and bankruptcy proceedings are opened, it is necessary to prepare an appropriate plan.
It is necessary as soon as signs of insolvency, in other words, imminent bankruptcy, become noticeable in the company’s work.
This may include a plan for pre-trial rehabilitation, external management to restore solvency, measures for debt restructuring, etc.
This anti-crisis action plan specifies the creation of new types of products, services, and the development of new markets in order to complement or completely replace the company’s existing offerings. All activities are based on the search and use of additional production opportunities for the release and sale of new, technologically unrelated products, for example, the supply sector can be developed. It is also allowed to launch the production of new products developed as a result of R&D within the organization based on its own experience.
In this case, an anti-crisis action plan is developed to improve the company’s product or launch a new production without changing the industry. To do this, the organization carries out R&D based on its own experience, “horizontal integration” by controlling competitors, searching for new markets, introducing new structures through acquisition or strengthening control over suppliers. It is also possible to create subsidiaries responsible for supply, exercising control over the structures located between the enterprise and the supplier, that is, over distribution and sales systems.
We are talking about the basic building blocks of a system of plans, which reveal the specific actions and resources needed to achieve goals at the level of activities and elementary activities.
The crisis in the enterprise and its possible consequences
A crisis is an extreme aggravation of contradictions in a socio-economic system (company), leading to its inability to withstand external factors. When talking about a crisis, one cannot avoid the topic of risks. The enterprise finds itself in a dangerous situation due to a whole set of internal reasons of a design, technological, economic, financial nature, and shortcomings in economic management within the company.
