INTRODUCTION TO GUIDANCE & COUNSELING HELPING RELATIONSHIP

HELPING RELATIONSHIP Motivation to help Interpersonal skills Person-to-person; person-to- group Confidentiality Qualification – formal training

HELPING RELATIONSHIP: INTERPERSONAL SKILLS ATTENDING BEHAVIORS Eye contact, proper body language, verbal interaction RESPONDING BEHAVIORS Help client explores and clarifies problem Empathy, clarification, reflection of meaning, listen and respond directly to feelings and to content expressed INITIATING BEHAVIORS Problem solving or action phase of counseling Probing, self-disclosure, confrontation, and direct mutual communication

What a Counselor Should Know: External and Self-Knowledge External Knowledge Learned from books, lectures, audio-and videotapes, and listening to others An understanding of the helping profession, human growth and development, counseling theory, group dynamics Knowledge of Self Self-concept – what we think about ourselves Self esteem – how we feel about ourselves

Self-Knowledge Know own cultural roots, biases, beliefs, and worldviews; nothing is impossible; Beliefs of reality are subject to question Open to experience Self-disclosure- sharing ideas, perceptions and feelings with significant others – helpful way to self-understanding and clarification of beliefs and values Open to others and to know them Discover ways in which we are similar as well as different from others Open to new ideas – forgive oneself for having misconceptions about others Keep a journal – record of growth

HELPING RELATIONSHIP: CHARACTERISTICS OF CLIENTS Ivey & Simek-Downing (1980) Clients usually come for counseling because they have some degree of decisional conflict and because they are blocked in their behaviors, thoughts and feelings. The client frequently has unfinished business and needs to broaden his perspective, break old behavior patterns, develops new behaviors, and choose fulfilling alternatives (p. 29)

HOW PEOPLE BECOME CLIENTS SELF-INITIATED ACTION RECOMMENDATION OF OTHERS COERCION

HOW PEOPLE BECOME CLIENTS SELF-INITIATED ACTION (Self-referred) Acknowledge specific problem, to enhance relationship, improve oneself Know of the existence of professional helping services and believe in their abilities Have some basic ideas of the counseling process Greater chance of success Motivated by their pain

HOW PEOPLE BECOME CLIENTS RECOMMENDATION OF OTHERS Have problem but do not know where to go for help Significant others in life may make suggestion or recommendations as where to seek help Externally derived – not highly motivated COERCION Sent for counseling by legal or social coercion; eg. Drunk driver or drug addicts or acting out children; psychological help for employees Involuntary referrals – most difficult cases – not there by choice - have little personal motivation to change

Therapeutic Alliance/ Working Relationship Foundation – trust and respect Working together to achieve mutually established goals Ongoing personal relationship has to be nurtured Strength of alliance between counselor and client is better predictor than of therapeutic success than the specific kind of therapy, qualities of therapist or the kind of client (Goleman, 1985)

Therapeutic Alliance/ Working Relationship Rosenblatt (1975) … I want to assist you, individuals, persons, to become whole, to integrate. … you lives. To do this, I need assistance from you, from the individual himself. You become my teacher and I become your student, to learn who you are, how you live your life. We become partners in an open-ended, free wheeling venture to get to know each other, to assist each other. (p.3)