1. Building your foundation as a helper ----Understanding yourself and interpersonal patterns

2. Typical needs and motivations of helpers
The need to make an impact
The need to return a favor
The need to care for others
The need for self-help
The need to be needed
The need for money
The need for prestige and status
The need to provide answers
The need for control others
The need for variety and flexibility
How these needs might enhance or interfere with
a person’s ability to help others?

3. The Effective Counselor
The most important instrument you have is YOU
Be authentic
Be a therapeutic person and be clear about who you are

4. Ideal helper Warm, accepting, caring Know who they are Open to change
Sincere, honest, & authentic
Invested, willing to take risks
Good boundaries
Live in the present
Sensitive to culture…………..more

5. Interpersonal patterns (see handout)
Intimacy needs
Need for approval from others
Importance of relationships in life
Preoccupation with relationships
Need for relationships
Level of trust
Level of trustworthiness in relationships
Level of confidence in relationships
Dependency Needs
Self-versus-other orientation in relationships
Comfort with asking for help
Importance given to feedback from others

6. Interpersonal patterns (see handout)
Level of self-versus-other absorption
Approach-avoidance behaviors
Level of value granted to relationships
Social skills
Comfort in new relationships
Center of attention
Self-disclosure in relationship
Emotional expressiveness in relationships
Identification with others
Conflict with authority figures
Stance toward equality in relationships
Source: Basic Skills in Psychotherapy and Counseling, by C. Brems (3rd), 2001

7. Counseling for the Counselor
Being a client, you can:
Therapists can help their client no further than they have been willing to go in their own life.

8. The Counselor’s Values
Be aware of how your values influence your interventions
Recognize that you are not value-neutral
Your job is to assist clients in finding answers that are most congruent with their own values
Find ways to manage value conflicts between you and your clients
Begin therapy by exploring the client’s goals
Client’s goals--parent-child interactionset boundary
Divorce

9. Multicultural Counseling
Become aware of your biases and values
Attempt to understand the world from your client’s standpoint
Gain a knowledge of the dynamics of oppression, racism, discrimination, and stereotyping
Study the historical background, traditions, and values of your client
Be open to learning from your client

10. Multicultural counseling Competence
Awareness of self
Understand others
Appropriate Skills
*Adapted from Sue, D. R., & Sue, D. (2004).Counseling the culturally diverse:
Theory and practice (4th Edition). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

11. Eight Racial Related Defenses
Color Blindness
Color Consciousness
Cultural Transference (client)
Cultural Counter transference (counselor)
Cultural Ambivalence
Pseudo-transference
Over-identification (minority therapist)
Identification with the Oppressor (minority therapist)

12. Issues Faced by Beginning Therapists
Common concerns:
Unrealistic beliefs: