Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is an interactive therapeutic strategy for turning crisis situations into learning opportunities for children and youth with chronic patterns of self-defeating behaviors. This non-physical intervention program uses a multi-theoretical approach to behavior management and problem solving. LSCI provides educators, social workers, psychologists, counselors, youth care professionals, and parents with advanced skills for teaching and creating positive relationships with youth who:

• Act out in stress toward unsuspecting helpers, sparking explosive and endless power struggles
• Make poor decisions based on distorted thought patterns and perceptual errors
• Have the right intentions and motivation but lack the social skills to be successful
• Are purposefully aggressive and exploitive with little conscience
• Act in self-damaging ways due to being burdened with shame and inadequacy
• Become entangled in destructive peer relationships and are vulnerable to manipulation

LSCI Certification Training

Find out why over 12,000 professionals rate LSCI training as their best in-service experience. 

Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is a nationally recognized, professional training and certification program offering professionals and parents a road map through conflict to desired outcomes using crisis as an opportunity to teach and create positive relationships with youth.  LSCI believes that the process of helping involves having the ability to listen deeply to the personal stories of children and youth and to recognize that their message is often not in their behaviors but in their underlying thoughts and feelings.

LSCI has received international recognition for demonstrating that staff working directly with troubled kids can turn a crisis into an opportunity for insight and learning.

Certification in LSCI includes:

• Five days of training (Can be done consecutively or in customized intervals).
• Real life video sequences
• Instructor-led modeling of intervention skills
• Structured and small group activities
• Realistic role play activities;
• The text: Life Space Crisis Intervention: Talking with Students in Conflict (Long, Wood, & Fecser; 2001)
• A comprehensive manual covering the training and techniques

Upon successful completion of the training, participants receive a Certificate of Competency in Life Space Crisis Intervention from the LSCI Institute.

LSCI Certification offers 30 CEU’s for licensed social workers, school psychologists, and professional counselors in most states.  Up to 3 Graduate credits in Special Education and Psychology can also be obtained for successful completion of the course.

For more information or to arrange an LSCI Certification training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area.

LSCI Skills for Parents

Now, for the first time ever, the LSCI Institute offers training to parents and caregivers, providing them with practical skills for conflict prevention and de-escalation and for managing some of the most challenging behavior of children and teens.  Training is offered in two parts, offering both large and small group options and 1-day or multi-session meetings.

PART 1: LSCI SKILLS FOR PARENTS: CONFLICT PREVENTION & DE-ESCALATION

The LSCI Skills for Parents: Conflict Prevention & De-Escalation curriculum offers training for parents and caregivers in the foundational skills of LSCI.  The training brings important LSCI concepts such as the differences in psychological worlds, the Conflict Cycle, effective interviewing, Drain Off, and Timeline skills into activities and discussions that are relevant and accessible to parents and caregivers.

PART 2: LSCI SKILLS FOR PARENTS: MANAGING CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS

The Managing Challenging Behaviors curriculum identifies six of the most common, chronic self-defeating patterns of behavior used by young people and provides a consistent 4-step process that parents can use to effectively address and modify each pattern.

LSCI Skills for Parents trainings are ideal for parents, foster parent groups and any caregiver desiring to better understand the psychological world of their child, avoid no-win power struggles, and build a better relationship, based on trust, that leads to real changes in their child’s self-defeating perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

For more information or to arrange an LSCI Skills for Parents training, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area.

From Conflict to Coping: Understanding the LSCI Conflict Cycle

One skill that underpins LSCI is an understanding of the dynamics of conflict.  The Conflict Cycle™ is LSCI’s major paradigm for understanding the dynamics of escalating power struggles between adults and children.  On the surface, the Conflict Cycle appears simple.  Yet, its underlying concepts are complex and each individual component is important to fully comprehend in order for adults to understand how to prevent and de-escalate conflicts with kids.

From Conflict to Coping: Understanding the LSCI Conflict Cycle curriculum is used to train professionals to:

1. Understand and recognize the dynamics of conflict and escalating power struggles between students and adults.
2. Develop effective strategies to control counter-aggression and de-escalate conflicts with kids.

A thorough understanding of the Conflict Cycle is an essential tool for any adult working with challenging children and youth.  In this curriculum, participants will learn and practice specific skills for understanding—and breaking—Conflict Cycles with kids.  The ultimate goal of The Conflict Cycle training is to help adults recognize their central role in making students feel safe and supported enough to choose to talk about their feelings rather than acting them out in self-defeating ways.

For more information or to arrange a Conflict Cycle training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area.

LSCI Training is Online!

Since 1991, The LSCI Institute has been providing Educators, Counselors, Psychologists, Social Workers, Youth Care Professionals, and Parents with interactive, therapeutic strategies for turning crisis situations into learning opportunities for children and youth with chronic patterns of self-defeating behaviors.

The advanced skills of LSCI are also available online!  Given the ever-increasing constraints on professionals’ time, travel, and continuing education funding, we have re-designed our Certification curriculum to offer the Introduction to LSCI as an online course.  Participants may complete Part 1 of the LSCI certification online, from work or home, on their own schedules, via our 11 video-based modules.

The online Introduction to LSCI provides in-depth instruction in the fundamental skills of LSCI, including:

• The differences in psychological worlds between helping adults and kids under stress
• The impact of chronic stress and traumatic events in the lives of young people
• The brain’s role in driving repetitive and predictable patterns of self-defeating behavior
• Helping kids bring language to emotion and gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• The LSCI Conflict Cycle
• Effective interviewing skills
• The six most common patterns of self-defeating behavior
• How to conduct a complete Red Flag reclaiming intervention

The LSCI Institute also offers online training for The Angry Smile and LSCI Advanced Certification and Refresher training (described below.)

To register for LSCI’s Online training, simply visit www.lsci.org, click on the Online Courses link, and complete the simple registration process.  In the Referral section, please enter Signe Whitson.

LSCI Refresher Training

The LSCI Refresher Course is designed for those who have successfully completed the certification course.  The 1-day workshop provides a forum for review and practice of critical LSCI skills and discussion about implementing LSCI in the real-world.  Participants are given extensive opportunities to role play and diagnose LSCI crisis situations.

The LSCI Refresher offers 6 CEU’s for licensed social workers and professional counselors in most states.

The LSCI Refresher training is also available online.  To register for LSCI’s Online training, simply visit www.lsci.org, click on the Online Courses link, and complete the simple registration process.

For more information or to arrange a live LSCI Refresher training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area. 

LSCI Group Curriculum for Kids

The eight-session LSCI Group Curriculum is designed to teach small groups of children and adolescents the basic concepts of Life Space Crisis Intervention. The social-emotional curriculum helps kids learn about self-defeating behaviors and how to avoid falling into these troublesome patterns.

The LSCI Group Curriculum Trainer’s Manual walks group leaders step-by-step and session-by-session through eight unique aspects of LSCI for Kids. Specially-designed Participant manuals provide kids with a handbook for journaling and recalling the skills learned in this unique group experience.

A special discount of $100 off of the regular price is offered to those who have completed the LSCI certification course.  If you are currently registered for an LSCI training or plan to attend in the near future, please ask your LSCI Trainer for the special discount code and enter it at checkout.

Click here to read the results of a study conducted at the Northwest Village School in Plainview, CT on the use of the LSCI Group Curriculum with a group of students, ages 13-18.

Click here to view a sample chapter from the LSCI Group Curriculum

For more information on the LSCI Group Curriculum for Kids, please visit www.lsci.org and click on the LSCI Products tab.