Intervention L5 - Practice Applied Skills in Psychology Flashcards
What is Helping?
- Respecting the other - Taking on the role of the other person - not about ourselves. Need to figure out what the other person wants and how they can do it for themselves. Respect what they want to do, what you think they should do.
- Diversity of Opinion - you don’t have a prescribed view of how everyone should live. Clients will have different views and we need to be flexible.
- Genuineness - fine line between being nice and being genuine. Therapy isn’t about being nice and supportive, just be genuine. Form an Alliance with the client - being able to genuinely relate to the person
- Empowerment - giving responsibility for change to the client!
What is Responsibility?
Being responsible in your own actions, to your colleagues, and to the board system.
- Humanism - humanistic outlook, positive view.
- Intellectual Curiosity - Be able to think about the things client says, be curious and create questions in your own head. BAD = cookbook method.
- Commitment - be there, on time. Commit to being available, to your development, your client.
- Orientation Towards Others
Risk when helping others?
- Psychologists’ own unresolved emotional issues - person may not have addressed how this impacts them - may lead to overstepping with clients, due to more intense reactions.
- Telling others how to live - due to psychs’ unresolve issues.
- Psych seeking Intimacy - friendship, weird payment exchanges such as exchanging favours etc. - also due to psychologists’ unresolved issues
- Values of helper are not clear - seeking a reciprocal relationship, rather than just supporting the client
- Unethical Behaviour - boundary violations
- All this leads to unclear expectations on both sides.
What is Therapeutic Alliance?
- Developing a collaborative approach when working with others
- ensuring the THERAPEUTIC INTERACTION is a valuable worthwhile experiences for the client.
- may be more important that actual therapeutic techniques.
- uses microskills.
what are the skills involved in forming a therapeutic alliance?
- preparation
- body language
- listening
- re-phrasing statement
- empathy
- clarifying/probing
- questions
what are Microskills?
Skills that are relationship building.
What does ‘preparation’ involve? (In relation to the psychologist)
- Taking time to prepare - be relaxed and calm, mindfulness - be in the moment don’t think about other stuff.
- Focus on other person - your commitment to the client
- OPEN MIND about the issues - the boundary of this is SAFETY -> suicidal thoughts or placing others at risk. Probe and Intervene.
- other other’s agenda is the focus
- not rushing to the solution
Body Language in Therapeutic Alliance?
Egan’s Microskills:
S - squarely face client O - open posture L - lean (mirror) E - eye contact R - relaxed or natural
!! But might not always apply.
- Cultural differences
- Get cues from your client.
- there is a level of intimacy in eye contact, make sure the client is open to it.
- Some may find eye contact intimidating. Mirror it - when the client does it first.
- Nervous Person may not feel comfortable, can comfort them using body language…
What does ‘Attending’ refer to in terms of therapeutic alliance?
Being attentive - no phone calls, or people knocking on door.
- No distractions - external or internal
- Listening carefully
- Thinking about processing information
- Following story but then requesting more information or detail
What does ‘listening’ refer to in terms of therapeutic alliance?
- Attending to the other person
- Active listening - be able to word for word recount what other person says - maybe add in what WANS’T said and the affect it was said in..
- Do I have a full picture of the situation?
- Do i understand feelings, thoughts and actions and reactions of others during this event?
- Check your feelings and responses to the other person - do you need to work on anything yourself? - have lots of support!
what does ‘understanding’ mean in terms of therapeutic alliance?
trying to put yourself into someone else’s position
- Experiences
- Behaviour
- Other’s responses
- Affect
- Circumstances or Situations
- Triggers to behaviour
Understanding non-verbal behaviour?
- How is the other person behaving non-verbally?
- Is there any discrepancy between their affect and their verbal statements?
- Do they appear to express appropriate affect?
- What are they really saying?
eg. if you see a flash of anger - f`ollow it.
and follow if you see people saying things with an innappropriate affect - follow up
What are non-verbal modifiers?
- Confirming or repeating - they repeat things if it is important.
- Denying or confusing - “Throwing sand in your face” - giving other irrelevant info to confuse the therapist - usually unintentional - maybe come back later when they are ready
- Strengthening or emphasising - exaggerated
- Controlling or regulating - redirecting you away from what they don’t want to talk about
How can we convey basic empathy?
Understanding situation from client’s perspective.
You feel… because……..and you act ……..in this way
pairing of the event with the affect.
What is re-phrasing
- Taking the clients comments and showing understanding - don’t repeat what they said - get the MEANING, and asking them if that’s what they meant.
“My understanding of what you said was that…”
