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Overview:
There are a number of basic helping skills that a counselor
must practice and master in order to build rapport, foster trust
and facilitate constructive collaboration.
These include
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Making personal contact - being
cognitively and emotionally present with the client.
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Accurate empathy - accurately sensing
the client's world and communicating that understanding.
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Genuineness - self-awareness, honesty
and openness; being real (not phony).
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Unconditional positive regard - accepting
and valuing the client as a unique and worthwhile person,
being nonjudgmental.
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Active listening - listening carefully
and empathically to the client's story with undistracted
attentiveness to 1) gain an understanding of the client's
problem, 2) learn how the client thinks, feels and acts, 3)
discover the client's strengths, assets and personal power,
and 4) build rapport with the client.
This includes maintaining comfortable eye contact and
open body posture.
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Reflecting - mirroring the client's
thoughts and feelings to demonstrate active listening and
encourage the client to continue speaking.
This includes:
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Restating - repeating verbatim the main
thought or feeling expressed by the client
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Paraphrasing - stating, in your own
words, the main thought or feeling expressed by the client.
This 1) lets the client know you are working to
understand what they are communicating, 2) brings focus to the
client's communication, 3) allows the client to correct any
misperceptions or misunderstandings, and 4) encourages client
self-exploration.
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Summarizing - summarizing, in your words,
a set of thoughts or feelings expressed by the client.
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Open-ended questioning - Asking questions
that require more than a minimal or one-word response by the
client. They
usually begin with what, how, where or when.
They encourage the client to elaborate and provide
additional information.
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Problem solving - assisting the client to
1) define goals (what the client wants, how the client would
like things to be), 2) generate strategies to accomplish these
goals (how the client may attain these wants and make things
be the way the client would like), 3) examine each strategy
for potential problems and outcomes, 4) review support,
strengths and resources, and 5) decide on a plan of action.
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Goal: Learn
about and practice basic helping skills for facilitating
constructive counseling.
Outcomes:
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Demonstrate basic helping skills,
including active listening, paraphrasing, clarifying,
reflecting, and problem solving.
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Demonstrate the development of a helping
relationship with the client characterized by warmth, respect,
genuineness, congruence and empathy.
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Demonstrate client-counselor
collaboration in the development of realistic, achievable
goals.
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Describe the process of adapting of
counseling strategies to the individual characteristics of the
client, including but not limited to disabilities, gender
differences, sexual orientation, developmental levels,
culture, ethnicity, age and health status.
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Objectives:
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Readings from course and supplemental texts.
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Discussion questions.
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Exercises and role plays.
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Videotape assignment.
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Class discussions.
Tasks:
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Complete the assigned text readings.
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Complete the following exercises in your
Cormier and Hackney text with an appropriate, willing partner
and local supervision:
2.1 (pages 18-19) |
2.6 (pages 29-30) |
3.4 (page 40) |
2.2 (pages 21-23) |
2.7 (page 30) |
3.5 (page 41-42) |
2.3 (pages 24-25) |
3.1 (pages 35-36)
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3.6 (page 42-43) |
2.4 (pages 27-28)
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3.2 (page
37) |
4.1 (page 49) |
2.5
(pages 28-29) |
3.3 (page 39) |
4.2 (page 54) |
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Submit complete and thoughtful answers to
the following questions in your Cormier and
Hackney text:
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#4 at the end of Chapter 2 (page 32)
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#1-#7 at the end of Chapter 2 (pages
43-44)
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#2-#6 at the end of Chapter 4(page 55)
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Practice the basic helping skills with an
appropriate, willing partner and local supervision.
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Submit a 30-minute videotape
demonstrating the basic helping skills.
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Participate in class discussions.
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