Chapter One: Helping as a Personal Journey

1. Chapter One:Helping as a Personal Journey

2. You will……… • Doubt yourself • Get frustrated • Freeze • Learn • Be attracted, repulsed, confused, annoyed by clients • Be amazed, inspired, changed by the people with whom you work • Sharpen your self-awareness skills

3. Becoming a Reflective Practitioner • Automatic responses, prejudices • Examine your reactions • YOU are sending out signals • Clients will react to your reactions and so on

4. Clients who are different from you- • Culturally • Education level • Socioeconomic status • Religiously • Family history • Relationship history • Communication style • And so on….. • Provide opportunities for you to grow and learn about yourself

5. Methods that will help you reflect • Teachers • Supervision • Fellow students • Be a client • Journal • Video tape • Examine how others react to you

6. Accepting feedback can be difficult • Defensive • Rationalize • It’s hard to accept something about yourself that you either were not aware of, or do not like Be willing & able to change (just like we tell clients….)

7. A Short Video As we watch, please note: • Did the helper’s own thoughts/feelings come across? • Would you have wanted this helper to be more verbal/ less verbal? • How did the helper communicate he was listening? • Any helper statements you didn’t like? • Would you like this helper as your therapist? Why/why not? • What feedback would you give this helper?

8. Some Ethical Guidelines for Beginning Counselors • Keep information shared in class confidential • Avoid giving advice • Do not impose your values on others • Be considerate when giving feedback • Use techniques from class or the text only • Notify a teacher or supervisor if anyone is suicidal (or thinking of hurting someone else)

9. Characteristics of Effective Helpers Congruence • Completely genuine with another person • Consistency (feel/say/do) • React to clients in the here and now • Do not hide behind your role

10. Positive Regard • Respect the client as a human being • All people have inherent worth • You may reject a person’s actions, but not the actual person

11. Empathy The ability to understand another person’s feelings or worldview Emotional empathy (understand their feelings) Cognitive empathy (understand their values, intentions, motives) The goal is to truly understand your client without judging or evaluating them

12. The Courage to Confront • Painful realities • Annoying behaviors • Risk the client’s anger • Uncomfortable-ness of confrontation • Make it effective for THAT client

13. Chapter Two: The Nuts and Bolts of Helping

14. Helping: Some Definitions • Helping: generic, anyone • Interviewing:Information-gathering • Structured Interview: Questions already determined • Unstructured Interview: No set script, flowing, interviewer fits questions into the conversation

15. Interviewing continued….. • Appropriate for counseling? • Determine a dx? • Client safe? • Suicidal? • Hx mental dx? • Helping and interviewing can occur during the same session (they are not mutually exclusive)

16. More definitions: • Counseling /psychotherapy: Professional; for fee; contract exists Which term above sounds less intimidating? • Coaching:“encouraging cheerleader”. not regulated (anyone can be “coach”)

17. Professional Help vs. Friendship • Friendships are TWO WAY streets • Client’s issues- not yours • Don’t try techniques on friends! • Contract with client (I.C.)

18. Informed Consent & Limits of Confidentiality “What we talk about in here is confidential. I am a trainee/intern so I do have a supervisor whom I talk to about my clients. The only other times I can share information about you is: If you give me permission; If you tell me you’re thinking of seriously hurting yourself or someone else; If you become unable to care for yourself; If a court subpoenas the records; or If you tell me about suspected child, elder, or dependent adult abuse. Do you have any questions about any of that?” What about treating kids? ‘holder of privilege” ? Limits?

19. Your expectations as a counselor • Reasonable expectations • Can’t help every person • Disappointment • Unappreciated • Can’t force clients to change • They have to meet us halfway • Won’t “fit” with everyone

20. “Road Map” of the helping process • Relationship Building • Assessment • Goal Setting • Intervention/Action • Evaluation/Reflection

21. Now for the fun stuff……………. • Please break into pairs • We are going to practice two types of interviewing: structured and unstructured • Take turns as interviewer/interviewee with both the list of questions (structured) and unstructured- ask whatever seems appropriate, about 8-10minutes each • As the interviewee, you do not have to answer something that makes you uncomfortable; “pass”

22. After the Interviews: • Discuss with the class reactions/thoughts • Which was easiest to implement? • Which felt more natural as a client? • Which produced the most pertinent information? • Which would you prefer to use in an actual session?

23. Practicing your Informed Consent • In your pairs: Practice giving each other your informed consent “spiel” Fine-tune it Provide feedback to partner How does it feel to hear this as a client?

24. And then………………. Expand into groups of 4 or 5 and discuss: • What are the positive/negative aspects of your personality. How might they affect your client/therapist relationships? • How have you reacted in the past when you weren’t as effective/successful at something as you wanted to be? How will you handle those situations in the future? • What are your reasons for becoming a therapist? What are your expectations and concerns?

25. If there is time…………………….. • Discuss what it means to “keep a professional distance” and to avoid dual-relationships and over-involvement with clients. • How would you know if you were over-involved with a client? • How can you set limits on the relationship?