Chapter 1 - Introduction to Helping Skills Flashcards
What is the role of a helper (counsellor/therapist)
To help and enables clients to experience healthy relationships, work toward personal growth, address existential concerns, and learn valuable skills.
What are the type of intervention?
Interventions include attending and listening behaviors, open and ended questions, restatements, reflections of feelings challenges, interpretations and self-disclosures
What is the main goal of helping?
Not to “solve” their problems but to “help” the troubled person manage them effectively.
What does missed opportunities and unused potential means?
Resources are available but they are not using it or opportunities that they do not develop or utilize
Who is a helper and a client?
Helper – individual provide assistance.
Client –indicate the person receiving support.
Helping means
Assisting clients in exploring feelings, gaining insight, and making positive changes in their lives
What are the characteristics of an ideal helper?
1) Open to learning: Curious, and are open to learning. You realize what you do not know and are willing to take steps to fill the gaps in your knowledge.
2) Genuine: Genuinely care for the people you help. Able to deal with a wide range of clients’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
3) Willingness: Willing to stay with clients as they go through this difficult process of change.
4) Flexible: You are willing to adapt your techniques to the unique situation of each client and apply different strategies that work for them.
5) Good interpersonal skills: Ability to establish good contact with other people and apply these skills in the helping relationship.
6) Respect sensitivity: Show respect to clients whose ethnic or cultural background is different from your own.
High-level Functioning Helper (Carkhuff, 1967)
1) Empathy– see things from the client’s perspective
2) Respect– maintain respect for the client’s ability to make decisions
3) Congruenceor Genuineness – the Rogerian state of authenticity
4) Concreteness– from abstractions to specifics
5) Self-disclosure– using appropriate levels of honesty to aid rapport and empathy
6) Confrontation– to be able to challenge inconsistency in the client when it arises
7) Immediacy– ability to discuss what is going on at that moment
Differences between Formal & Informal Help
- Formal help is characterized by scheduling, time limitations and professional competencies.
(e.g.: counselor, psychiatrist) - Informal help is characterized by emotional closeness, companionship and reciprocity.
(e.g.: family, friends, teachers, society)
Model of ‘active listening’ by Egan - (The SOLER Technique)
S- Face the client squarely; demonstrating you are involved.
O- Maintain an open posture: Don’t cross your arms and legs. Open poses are welcoming and engaging.
L- Leaning forward when a person is talking to you, shows you are listening to them and involved with the meaning.
E- Eye contact shows engagement and full attention.
R- Relax :Stay relaxed & keep calm for the client.
3 Stages of the Helping Process
(Skilled Help Model)
Stage 1: TheExploration Stage
Stage 2: TheChallenge Stage
Stage 3: ThePlanning Stage
Stage 1 (The Exploration Stage)
-“what is going on?” questions
- helper is exploring the client’s situation.
- help the client to investigate their situation and uncover the issues that they want to tackle.
Toachieve success in this stage, the helper will be using excellent active listening skills, developing their rapport, reflecting, paraphrasing, silence, checking their understanding, asking open questions and summarizing what they are hearing.
Examples ofopen-ended questions:
– “Howdo you feel about that?”, “Whatwere you thinking?”, “Whatis it like for you?, “Whatelse can you say about that?”,“Doyou want to say more about that?”
Stage 2 (TheChallenge Stage)
- guiding client toward rational decision-making process, utilizing careful analysis, careful consideration of the data and beginning to plan.
- brainstorm, and encourage creative thinking around the issues, in order to generate different options when it comes to dealing with certain situations and arriving at goals.
Questions to ask in the Challenge Stage
– “Whatdo you think the situation looks like from their point of view?”.
– “Whatwould she say about all of this?”
– “Arethere any other ways of looking at this?”
– “Isthere anything you’ve overlooked?”
– “Whatabout all of this is a problem for you?”
Stage 3 (ThePlanning Stage)
- Guiding the client through problem-solving and decision-making methods, employing appropriate encouragement and support.
- Creating realistic and achievable goals with time-specific objectives can help in this process which along with the encouragement and support of the helper can lead to profound change.
- SMART Technique