“This book clearly and creatively lays out effective techniques for rapidly responding to a wide variety of real-world crises. Empirically solid and clinically astute, this work is without peer as a guide to providing urgent care. When time is of the essence, every practitioner will want to have Kleespies' book within arm's reach.”

—John Monahan, PhD, Doherty Professor of Law, University of Virginia


“This book provides an extraordinarily well-stocked workroom of tools necessary for today's clinicians. It begins with an awareness of the appalling deficiency in graduate clinical training to ready mental health clinicians to deal with a wide and anxiety-provoking range of psychiatric crises. It succeeds admirably in providing the essential knowledge and competencies that readers need in order to become effective interventionists. Moreover, it helps clinicians contain and manage both their affect and their exposure to malpractice risk should a patient threaten violence to self or others. With these tools, clinicians can build structures capable of weathering any and all storms. Timely and strategic, this book should be required reading for both novice and experienced professionals.”

—Alan L. Berman, PhD, author of Adolescent Suicide