HMVS 343 journal 1
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Chapter14.pptxChapter 1
Eight Characteristics of the effective helper
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Learning Objectives
Identify toxic behaviors that can be detrimental to the helping relationship.
Explore a number of characteristics critical to an effective helping relationship, including:
Showing empathy
Being genuine
Exuding acceptance
Being cognitively complex
Embracing wellness
Developing competence
Being culturally sensitive
Developing your “it factor”
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Toxic Behaviors to Building a Helping Relationship
Toxic behaviors do not lend themselves to healthy relationships or healthy development
First identify toxic behaviors you were exposed to and examine how they have impacted your life. Complete Reflection Exercise 1.1:
Forethought and restraint help avoid toxic behaviors in our helping relationships
Be self-aware and self-monitor to prevent toxic behaviors from seeping into helping relationships
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Relationships
Many behaviors critical to a helper’s work
These behaviors help build a working alliance
Building a working alliance is complex but includes:
Empathy
Genuineness
Acceptance
Cognitive complexity
Embracing wellness
Competence
Cultural sensitivity
Helper’s “it factor”
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Empathy
Genuineness
Acceptance
Cognitive Complexity
Wellness
Competence
Cultural Sensitivity
The It Factor
8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Being Empathic
Understanding another person’s point of view
Carl Rogers noted that the empathic person could sense the private world of the client as if it were his or her own, without losing the "as if" feeling
Accept and understand people in their differences
Communicate a sense of acceptance
Can build rapport, help to elicit information, and help facilitate a sense of acceptance between the helper and the client
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.2: Are You Empathic?
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Genuine people are aware of their feelings and willing to express them
Helpers must model realness as appropriate
Monitoring one’s emotions is called emotional intelligence
Genuineness is positively linked to positive outcomes
Helpers must address their levels of transparency, realness and emotional intelligence
Are you in touch with your feelings, and can you monitor them and express them at the appropriate times?
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.3: Keeping Secrets
Genuineness
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Acceptance
Referred to as unconditional positive regard by Carl Rogers
Allow others to express their points of view without needing to change them
Open to understanding the views of others
Open to feedback
Open to changing their perceptions of the world
Relatively free from biases
Can accept people regardless of dissimilarities
Investing energy in convincing someone to embrace his or her beliefs hampers the ability to listen to the client
Research shows a relationship between the ability to be accepting and being a good listener and positive client outcomes.
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.4: Accepting Differences
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Being a relativistic, or complex, thinker allows the helper to see the multiple realities people live by
Is not a dualistic, or black and white, way of thinking
A relativistic thinker is less likely to judge a client because they live their life differently
Narrative therapy refers to cognitive complexity as thick descriptions, an understanding of life that is composed of many layers
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.5: Creating Multiple Narratives
Cognitive Complexity
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Wellness
Can you help others if you need help yourself?
Helpers, like all people, struggle with life's concerns
Burnout, stress, vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, psychological issues, and unfinished personal concerns, can limit the helper’s ability to build a working alliance with a client
A helper attending counseling has a number of benefits, including preventing countertransference, or the process of projecting one’s issues onto the client
85% of helpers have attended counseling
Other activities such as support groups, diet, meditation, pray, exercise, journaling, reading, and more have all been shown to have positive effects on one's emotional health
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.6: Assessing Your Wellness
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Effective human service professionals have a thirst for knowledge
Knowledge is closely related to competence
Exhibit their quest for knowledge through:
Their studies
Membership in professional associations
Reading professional journals
Ability to broaden and deepen their own approach with clients.
Knowing what techniques work best with specific populations
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.7: How Much Do You Value Competence?
Competence
Ethical Standards of Human Service Professionals suggests that helpers:
(1) know the limit and scope of their abilities,
(2) seek appropriate consultation when necessary,
(3) be involved in ongoing professional development activities, and
(4) continually seek out new and better treatment methods.
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors
Regardless of cultural background, it may be more difficult to understand a client that is compared to someone from your own cultural or ethnic background
All helpers should be sensitive to their clients and knowledgeable, or willing to gain knowledge of, their client
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.8
Cultural Sensitivity
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RESPECTFUL Counseling Model
Ten factors that all helpers should consider when working with clients
R: religious/spiritual identity
E: economic class background
S: sexual identity
P: level of psychological development
E: ethnic/racial identity
C: chronological/developmental challenges
T: various forms of trauma and other threats to one’s sense of well-being
F: family background and history
U: unique physical characteristics
L: location of residence and language differences
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8 Characteristics of Effective Helping Behaviors: The “It Factor”
Each of our unique personalities impact the helping relationship in profound, and perhaps, mysterious ways
Embrace who you are – this is your “it factor”
The “it factor” is the core of who you are and how you act in relationships
Use core skills along with your “it factor” with your clients
Toxic personality factors are probably not your “it factor”—it’s probably some leftover unfinished business that you need to work through
Complete Reflection Exercise 1.9: Your It Factor
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Bringing it all together
There are eight characteristics reviewed in this chapter that seem empirically or theoretically related to effectiveness as a helper
Few individuals have embraced all of these characteristics fully
Periodically we should take a personal inventory to determine how fully we are embracing these qualities
Complete Experiential Exercise 1.10: A Self Inventory of the Eight Characteristics
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