Week 1: Helping Skills and the Human Services Professional Practitioner
While this course uses the terms “helping skills” and “helping process” as standard language, these skills and processes encompass more than simply “helping.” The relationship should be one in which the service user is empowered to create change in their own life, rather than the practitioner enacting or dictating that change. Naturally, a power dynamic exists in any situation where one person seeks services and another provides them. However, it is the practitioner’s responsibility to minimize the power differential in their interactions and uphold human services ethical standards.
So, what roles does the practitioner actually play in this relationship? And how do helping skills facilitate those roles?
In this Assignment, you explore the value of helping skills in human services. You also isolate the importance of one particular skill, holistic appraisal—in other words, assessing a service user’s circumstances through a wide lens to see the whole picture.
To Prepare
- Review the Learning Resources on helping skills and characteristics. .
Write a 2-page paper defining helping skills and explaining their importance in human services. Specifically:
- Describe the human services professional practitioner’s roles in the helping process.
- Explain how helping skills contribute to the effectiveness of those roles.
- Based on the Selective Attention Test in the Pre-Discussion Activities, you know about viewing the “whole picture” in order to notice things that may be hidden or obscured. Why is this especially important in human services? Provide a human services–specific example where a practitioner does or does not see the whole picture. Explain the potential impact on the service user in the example.
Tutorial for Helping Skills and the Human Services Professional Practitioner
