s in psychiatric treatment wrought by changes in the economic and social environments is the trend toward short stay inpatient treatment. To remain a viable treatment approach, milieu therapy must embrace transformed treatment goals. As an example, crisis intervention and symptom stabilization might be sought in lieu of lasting personality change.
Within the earlier concept of milieu therapy, the role of the therapist was expected, in most instances, to be supportive but non interpretative (LeCuyer, 1992, pp. 108 118). In the transformed concept of milieu therapy as a psychodynamic approach to crisis intervention, therapists are expected to serve as individual and family psychotherapists in short stay inpatient settings and, importantly, in post hospitalization outpatient follow up care. The role of the therapist, thus, is transformed along with the concept of milieu therapy as a form of psychodynamic intervention.
Crisis theory is based on the assumption that a person in such a situation is at a life turning point (Aguilera, 1990, p. 1). Crisis intervention can provide an individual with the assistance required to restore equilibrium to the person's life.
The four phases of crisis in individuals are an initial rise in tension, unsuccessful coping, a further increase in tension that motivates an individual to mobilize
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