De-escalation Training

The goal of de-escalation is not to immediately resolve every concern and complaint. Rather, the objective is to reduce emotional stress, to build rapport, and to achieve an agreement to work together to find better solutions to problems.

Through the innovative MORE PIES and PSASA program, students will learn how to work through de-escalation in a safe and respectful manner and how to follow-up to ensure the person who has gone through the escalation/de-escalation cycle feels heard and understood. 

Utilizing techniques developed by the Seattle Police Department, the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU), and others this course prepares students to effectively engage in de-escalation. 

While there is no "magic bullet" and every encounter is unique, students can expect to better understand the psychology of an escalated individual and to use that understanding to help bring about a positive outcome.

Justin Smith first began to learn how to de-escalate high-stress situations while serving more than a decade as a volunteer prison chaplain. Working closely with inmates who were often experiencing difficult times or who were in crisis he began to develop his own set of skills and rules for defusing volatile cases. This challenging environment included working with psychiatric and suicidal subjects. 

He further refined his techniques over twenty years as a Director for an Information Technology department in a high stress and deadline driven environment. He trained his staff in customer service and de-escalation techniques which are still used today.

Now working in the field of public relations, Justin continues to utilize de-escalation and advanced communication skills to work with the public in a variety of situations. 

He has taught his de-escalation techniques to hundreds of people and hopes to continue offering his training to many more!