How do you drill de-escalation techniques?

[Tempest]

This is a topic that is very near and dear to me because in my job I am literally a professional de-escalator and a great deal of what I see taugt to people in MA about de-escalation would get you fired where I work.

There are several standard, industry accepted practices that can be used to de-escalate an emotionally charged situation long before it becomes violent, but ALL of them rely on you NOT taking an adversarial approach from the begining.

For example, if someone is yelling in your face and even threatens you with possible harm, BUT has not moved to actually DO anything to harm you, it behooves you to Hear them, Empathize with them, Apologize for what ever has upset them, and Take action to correct the situation if you can.

I am curious how this is practiced at everyone's schools when they teach self defense.

[bushido_man96]

I've heard that method before, but never drilled it. I've thought about how I would set up scenarios and work this with students, perhaps them hitting certain key words helping to bring the situation down, or other certain words or actions would amp things the wrong way. I think there are lots of opportunities to put to use in this type of training.

I'm curious where these "industry standards" come from, where you learn them at.

[Tempest]

I work for a third-party call center company currently, however if you ever work for a company where your job is to take angry, disagreeable people and convince them to do what you want, and physical force is NOT an option, then you will learn some variation of these skills.

The method I originally posted is known as H.E.A.T. and is tought to customer service professionals in a number of areas.

Some internet research yields at least one hospital as well as every company I have worked for at least mentions it.

[ninjanurse]

Verbal Judo...very effective in many situations involving conflict or possible conflict.

George Thompson wrote a book on it...a good read!

[Tempest]

Cool. What is the name of the book, and is it possible to get it from a typical bookstore?

[JusticeZero]

Cool. What is the name of the book, and is it possible to get it from a typical bookstore?

Thompson, G. (2004). Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion (New Updated Edition.). William Morrow Paperbacks.

According to Amazon, there is a second edition in the works that has not yet been released. I saw a number of copies for sale here and there while tracking down the reference.

[Tempest]

Thank you

[bushido_man96]

We learned the use of verbal judo at academy, and is what we usually fall back on at work. Against drunks, though, it doesn't always work so well.

[Tempest]

Not always, no, but it still can as long as the person doing the technique can keep his thoughts and ego in check.

The goal should always be to resolve the situation without violence unless it is your job to use force, and even then using force is a risky proposition to be avoided whenever possible.

Now that being said, if you are offered physical violence, you MUST ensure your own safety first, and then the safety of anyone you are responsible for.

[muttley]

Would love to get into this, however, discussing how we teach things like this in a public forum is liable to get me sacked