Presents a systemic view of the nature of crisis, and describes generic and specific elements of crises. A rationale model and an interview model are presented to guide the phases of a Strategic Rapid Intervention (SRI) approach that follow the process-constructive model of intervention at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. The 6 phases of SRI are relationship establishment, information gathering, consensual problem formulation, processing break, problem solving, and summary. The SRI approach is recommended as a general model to structure any crisis contact, which allows the therapist to begin the interview feeling more confident, with a sense of general direction, and to be less easily drawn into the escalating cycle of panic in the crisis intervention system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)