What's the most compassionate way to help a client suffering from a mental crisis?
I had a client contact me while they were in the midst of a mental health crisis. I advised them to contact a mental health professional but they insisted on a reading. I couldnt talk them out of it and eventually caved and agreed. The reading lasted all night, but it seemed to help get them out of a very dark place.
Now I don't know what to do. I'm glad that I was able to help this person, but the experience was emotionally, psychology and physically draining. I don't want to have to do that again primarily because I have no real training in helping someone going through a crisis, but also because the experience was so taxing. The whole time I was terrified that I would say the wrong thing and make their crisis worse.
I don't know how to proceed. On the one hand it seems extremely cruel to cut this person off, as I feel like this will be yet another rejection in their life. On the other hand I don't feel like I can really help them, I feel like I got lucky this time, but if I had made a mistake causing thrm to harm themselves i would never forgive myself. I have no formal training (or any training) helping people with severe mental and emotional distress.
I'm thinking about taking some classes to be better prepared in the future, but until then I'm genuinely at a loss on how to proceed with this specific client.
Has anyone had any experience with something like this? If so what did you do? Any input would be greatly appreciated.