ENTMA European Network of Trainers in the Management of Aggression

Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is a verbal and therapeutic strategy elaborated with the purpose to help children and youth in crisis. This strategy is based on cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioral and developmental theory. The roots of LSCI go back to Fritz Redl who, together with David Wineman, used the concept of Life Space Interview (LSI). Redl and Wineman used the interview for the treatment of delinquent youths in Detroit in the 1950s. The attention was given to the direct life space or daily experience of the youth. Redl and Wineman were the first who considered an adolescent’s crisis as a therapeutic and central part in treatment. In 1981 Nicholas Long, a student from Redl and developer of the Conflict Cycle, published a work on LSI and promoted it as a required skill that helps educators to handle problem youngsters at school. Later on, in 1992, Long and Mary Wood published a textbook ‘Life Space Intervention’ for teachers. That same year, Long and Frank Fecser developed a training program for LSCI. The basis of the professional structure and standard for further trainings was made. LSCI is now an internationally recognized professional and certificated training program. In 2000, Franky D’Oosterlinck followed the training by Mark Freado senior trainer in ‘The Institute of Life Space Crisis Intervention’ in South Dakota, USA. D’Oosterlinck was the first who introduced the method LSCI in Belgium. He implemented it in the Orthopedagogical Observation and Treatment Centre (OOBC) ‘Nieuwe Vaart’ in Ghent where he is the director of the day treatment for children with behavior- en emotional disturbances. A collaboration with eight treatment centres in the East of Flanders has led to the implementation of other research programs in Belgium. Karen Dille, one of the authors of this article and scientific coworker of the OOBC, followed a LSCI training by D’Oosterlinck. Karin Blankespoor, from the Netherlands, attended the Conference in Ghent where the first research results were presented in 2004. At the time there was great need for a method to deal with crises and aggression as a nearby school asked Cardea, the treatment centre in Leiden where Blankespoor works as an orthopedagogue, for help. LSCI appeared an appropriate answer to these needs. Blankespoor started following the training sessions in Belgium, and at last in the USA. And since 2007 training sessions in LSCI have started in the Netherlands and along with implementation in various youth care settings. The main paper