BELL WORK

List three words that you think describe the

"helping process“. Be ready to share

CLASSROOM NORMS

• Be prepared

• Turn off cell phones or put them on vibrate

• Be respectful

• Clean up after yourself

Chapter 4

“The Helping Process”

RH 330/440 Human Service Fieldwork Experience

Instructor: Roland Merar

By: Yolani Camacho

Student Learning Outcomes:

• At the completion of this presentation students will be able to:

– Explain the definition of helping and its dimensions.

– Recognize the Essential Helping Characteristics & establishing healthy relationships.

– Identify the Three levels of Practice in Human Service.

– Describe Three Effective Helping Approaches

– Identify the 5 stages of the Agate Model

Aim of the Chapter

• As a human service provider, your role will involve helping others in some capacity. In your fieldwork, you may already have been involved in some form of helping. Inherent in this role is active participation in the helping process, the essence of human services. This chapter is dedicated to the helping process.

Helping- Definition

• Term that has many individualized meanings,

varying with:

- A person’s role in human services

- Educational background and experience

- Personal motivations for becoming a helper

Helping as defined by various subcultures:

• Informal- family and friends assist each other

• Formal- where an individual seeks professional help to cope with life’s problems.

• Brammer (1988) views it as the process whereby human service workers “help others to grow toward their personal goals and to strengthen their capacities for coping with life.”

Other possible terms:

• Counselor- counselee

• Worker- client

• Therapist- patient

• Clinician- client

• Case manager- client

• Interviewer- interviewee

Dimensions of Helping

• Professional perspective (formal):

• Hackney and Cormier (1988) helping process has 3 dimensions

- helping conditions

-preconditions for helping

- results or outcomes

Helping Conditions

• Someone is willing to give help- clients need to know that helpers are willing and motivated to provide services, otherwise the helping process will be severely compromised.

• Someone is capable of helping or trained to help- professional and formal training is crucial for the success of the helping process.

• The setting permits help to be given and received- the physical and emotional surroundings are important to the success of both client and worker; clients must feel safe and as comfortable as possible, even if this may require more skill, willingness, and determination of the worker.

Preconditions for Help

• Characteristics of helper and client- both client and helper experiences and self-awareness can contribute to the success of the helping process.

• Each client’s intentions in seeking help, the types of change they desire, and their level of motivation and commitment differs.

• Results and outcomes- it is important to recognize that getting results is a process, and does not happen overnight.

Essential Helping Characteristics

• Appropriate Self-Disclosure- Self-disclosure must

be done sparingly, at the right time, and only as a

means for client growth, not to satisfy the helper’s

needs.

• Content self-disclosure- helper shares information

about himself/herself.

• Process self-disclosure- helpers share how he/she

feels toward the client in the moment.

Establishing Helping Relationships

Necessary characteristics of helping relationships:

Accepting: the individual’s right to existence, importance, and value.

Dynamic: Active participation.

Emotional: the essence of relationships is emotional rather than intellectual.

Authoritative in appropriate ways: use the authority of knowledge and the authority of social sanction.

The Importance of Rapport and Trust

• Rapport refers to the psychological climate that emerges

from the interpersonal contact between you and your client.

• 3 components of rapport

- a perceived warmth and caring

- a perceived safety and acceptance, and;

- a perceived trustworthiness and credibility

* Maintaining trust requires that helpers remain responsible,

committed and ethical in their practices.

6 Therapeutic Factors (Common curative factors)

1. Maintaining a strong helper/client relationship.

2. Increasing the client’s motivation and expectation of help.

3. Enhancing the client’s sense of mastery or self-efficacy.

4. Providing new learning experiences.

5. Raising emotional arousal (or lowering through relaxation).

6. Providing opportunities to practice new behaviors.

Approaches To Working In Human

Services Exposure to different types of client-helper

Interactions with different types of levels of practice

depending on the organization client system.

Types of Approaches To Helping : Practice Levels

• Micro

• Mezzo (Working with families & Group Work)

• Macro

Macro, Mezzo, Micro continued:

• Macro level social work is interventions provided on a large scale that affects entire communities and systems of care. Mezzo social work happens on an intermediate scale, involving neighborhoods, institutions or other smaller groups. Micro practice is the most common, and is direct social work with an individual client or family.

• These three levels of social work practice at times overlap and always influence each other, so it is important to understand the distinctions between these social work approaches.

• Macro Social Work • The practice of macro social work is the effort to help clients by intervening in large systems. Examples include

lobbying to change a health care law, organizing a state-wide activist group or advocating for large-scale social policy change. Macro practice is one of the key distinctions between social work and other helping professions, such as psychiatric therapy. Macro social work generally addresses issues experienced in mezzo or micro social work practice, as well as social work research. Macro practice empowers clients by involving them in systemic change.

• Mezzo Social Work • Mezzo social work practice deals with small-to-medium-sized groups, such as neighborhoods, schools or other

local organizations. Examples of mezzo social work include community organizing, management of a social work organization or focus on institutional or cultural change rather than individual clients. Social workers engaged in mezzo practice are often also engaged in micro and/or macro social work. This ensures the needs and challenges of individual clients are understood and addressed in tandem with larger social issues.

• Micro Social Work • Micro practice is the most common kind of social work, and is how most people imagine social workers providing

services. In micro social work, the social worker engages with individuals or families to solve problems. Common examples include helping individuals to find appropriate housing, health care and social services. Family therapy and individual counseling would also fall under the auspices of micro practice. Many social workers engage in micro and mezzo practice simultaneously. Even the most ambitious macro-level interventions have their roots in the conversations between a single social worker and a single client.

Effective Helping Approaches

• The TFA Model

• The Biopsychosocial Approach – Biological System

– Psychosocial or Emotional Systems

– Societal Systems

• The Strengths Perspective – Assessment of Clients Strengths

– Use of the Strengths Perspective in Goal Setting and Intervention.

Mini Activity: Think-Pair-Share

THINK:

1. Choose an Organization/agency or your fieldwork.

2. Identify what level of practice(Micro, Mezzo, Macro)

that is demonstrated in the organization.

PAIR:

(Divide up into pairs)

SHARE:

What Organization/agency did you chose?

Explain why did you chose the level of practice.

An Overview of Helping Models

“Fundamental to professional helping is the ability to assist clients in coping with their difficulties and developing healthy problem solving

skills.”

we must keep this in mind along with these

prerequisites for the helping process:

• A working relationship must be established w/ client

• Helpers must adhere to the values of their profession

• The helping process must be guided by knowledge & skill

• Helpers must be aware that although effectiveness of each stage

depends on successful completion of the preceding stage, the

process will often not be sequential, so flexibility and

acceptance is necessary.

An Integrated Approach: The Agate Model

A comprehensive approach that highlights client strengths and

has broad applicability in most agency settings. (Five Stages)

1. Assessment of client’s strengths

2. Goal setting, reorienting, shaping, prioritizing

3. Action: planning & intervention

4. Termination: evaluation, revise, ending

5. Examination: Follow-up

Assessment of Client’s Strengths Assess Client Strengths with these guidelines:

1.What do you most like about yourself?

2.Can you list the positive qualities you feel you possess

3. What types of compliments do others give you?

4. Describe healthy coping skills you have used before.

5. If asked to describe yourself by focusing on the

positives, what would you say?

ACTIVITY*** Choose one question to

answer

Lazarus’s BASIC I.D. A multimodel approach that divides a person’s complex personality complex personality into 7 major areas of funtioning: B – Behavior (overt behaviors) A – Affective responses (emotions, moods, feelings) S – Sensations (five basic senses) I – Images (self-image) C – Cognitions (insights, ideas, self-talk) I – Interpersonal relationships (interactions with others) D – Drugs/biology (drugs, biological functions, nutrition, and exercise)

Goal Setting: • Reorienting: Educate clients early on about the nature of helping: use of

time; promptness; agency policies; confidentiality; professionalism; dual

relationships

• Shaping Goals: Must be shared (collaboration); helps establish a

framework for attaining goals; increase the likelihood of success.

• Prioritizing: Consider which goals are important to pursue first and

which are secondary.

Action: Planning & Intervention (Actual implementation and planning to meet the goals

identified…)

THREE Activities of this phase include:

1. Review perceptions of client’s concerns as they may have changed

2. Overcoming resistance: change may frighten client

3. Developing the implementation of the plan

***Also identify existing resources and support; resources

within oneself; resources within one’s environment

Termination • Usually results form one of three factors: 1) The goals have been met

2) Circumstances have changed (certain aspects of client’s life have changed 3) Client no longer feels invested in helping process.

• Evaluation process: Continuous and ongoing review • Formative evaluation: “ “ involves simultaneously evaluating client’s

behavior and the success of the helping process. • Summative evaluation: Occurs at the end of the treatment and involves the

outcomes of the process, assessing client’s satisfaction, and checking for success.

*Review with the client their feelings about process and assess readiness of client to terminate the process

Examination of the Process, Self, & Follow-up

• Self-Evaluation: Once process has ended, helpers can gain insight on what methods & techniques were effective, what aspects of the relationship reinforced positive change, and which helping skills were most beneficial. It is an effective responsibility for helpers to continually evaluate their roles. Doing so allows the development of one’s own helping style.

• Follow-ups can enhance clients’ growth; convey that they are valued; help determine the success of process; reinforce the need to continue to implement skills learned; alter helpers to the need to reestablish relationship for those who are not doing well; solidify the message that the door remains open for further interaction; communicate that clients are not alone and deserve to be helped

Assessment & Wrap Up

References

• Human Service Agencies: Orientation to Fieldwork

Text Book.Chapter4:Helping Process(Pg.95-123).

• www.google.com

Any Questions?

THANK YOU!