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January 2015 ~ Helpful Conversations - Part 3
- Chapter 6: Psychological Approaches to Helping Conversations
- Chapter 7: Your Communications Skills Toolkit
Resources (links, books, articles, the lighter side)
January
2015 ~ Helpful Conversations - Part 3
In November 2014, we are started a series called Helpful Conversations, based on the work of Regina Wright, a chartered psychologist in Europe. This series of newsletter articles is based on a one-year university-accredited training program that Regina created for the National School of Government to teach reflective skills and individual feedback. Her background work for the training is based on the work of John Heron, Carl Rogers and Gerard Egan. Regina may be contacted at HelpfulConversations [at] hotmail.com or by phone in the UK at 0044 1293 518815 (from the US 011-44-1293-518815)
The training was originally created for counselors and has been adapted for our newsletter series. Since good communications skills are important for anyone in business, we are pleased to be able to offer this series for our readers with Regina's permission. Your feedback is welcome.
Regina is also offering to give feedback on those who would like to use the newsletter series as an online course and do the exercises in each chapter. Send your results and comments directly to Regina via email to HelpfulConversations [at] hotmail.com using the chapter task list for each part (downloadable Word document). Regina has graciously offered to review results at no charge to our readers.
CHAPTER 6: Psychological Approaches to Helping Conversations
We saw in the previous chapter that people have different preferences with regard to exploring their feelings, their thoughts, their behavior, the past (the unconscious) or the future (the spiritual or transpersonal). These are the basic dimensions of life and living, and perhaps not surprisingly, major psychological schools of thought have evolved around each of them. Indeed, each of these preferences represents a mainstream of psychological and counseling theory.
Psychological theories
The purpose of a psychological theory is to both explain human distress and suggest ways of overcoming it. At present within psychology and counseling there are many competing theories of human existence. This means that there is no one ‘right’ answer to a psychological or counseling issue. Depending on one’s personal persuasion and the school of thought one favors, the explanation and resultant approach will be different.
This may sound confusing and scary. Does that mean counselors and psychologists don’t know what they are doing? – Not quite! We each hold a preferred view of what makes people tick, and there is evidence to support more than one view.
What it comes down to is matching the psychological approach to the client, and to the kind of problem. We will see below that some kinds of approaches are particularly appropriate to or successful with certain kinds of client issues.
I give a brief overview, and we consider the thorny problem of how to put it altogether after that.
- Psychodynamic – the Past
- Behavioral Approach / Actions, Behavior
- Client-centered / Feelings
- Cognitive / Thinking
- Transpersonal approaches /the Superconscious
- Contemporary approaches to counseling
Part 3 is continued in the full Chapter 6 and 7 for download (as a PDF file). The Chapter 6-7 Task List (Word document) is available for download if you would like feedback from Regina (at no charge to you).
November 2014 was Part 1 of the series and includes the Glossary.
Helpful Conversations series ... to be continued ...
Internet Resources
- John Heron's Six Categories of Intervention: Understanding How to Help People More Effectively http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/HeronsCategories.htm
- Carl Rogers: On Becoming a Person http://www.butler-bowdon.com/Carl-Rogers-On-Becoming-A-Person
- Person Centered Therapy http://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html
- Client-Centered Therapy http://psychology.about.com/od/typesofpsychotherapy/a/client-centered-therapy.htm
- Gerard Egan's Skilled Helper Model http://www.gp-training.net/training/communication_skills/mentoring/egan.htm
- The Skilled Helper Model by Gerard Egan (video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxoxVrA8dLs
- Helping Relationships: Principles, Theory and Practice http://infed.org/mobi/helping-relationships-principles-theory-and-practice/
Books - Disclosure:
We get a small commission for purchases made via links to Amazon.
- Helping the Client: A Creative Practical Guide. John Heron. Sage Publications, 2001. ISBN: 978-0761972884
- On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy. Carl Rogers. Mariner Books, 1995. ISBN: 978-0395755310
- Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. Carl Rogers. Robinson Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 978-1841198408
- The Skilled Helper: A Problem-Management and Opportunity-Development Approach to Helping. Gerard Egan. Cengage Learning (2013). ISBN: 978-1285065717
- Income Without a Job: Living Well Without a Paycheck. Michael Jay Anthony, Barbara J. Taylor. Lulu.com, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-557-00377-8. Website: www.income-without-a-job.com. Tap into your own creativity and use your full potential. Learn how to see opportunities that others miss.
Articles
Related newsletter articles:
August 1997
- Improving verbal communications
April 2001 - Consulting Skills
for Managers
November 2007 - True Community
March 2005 - Male/Female
Communication at Work
April 2000 - The Art of Listening
The Lighter Side
The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.
― Thich Nhat HanhThe most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't being said. The art of reading between the lines is a life long quest of the wise.
― Shannon L. AlderThe most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.
― Ralph G. NicholsMany a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request.
— Phillip Stanhope, Earl of ChesterfieldOne of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say
― Bryant H. McGillToo often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
― Leo Buscaglia
About our resource links: We do not endorse or agree with all the beliefs in these links. We do keep an open mind about different viewpoints and respect the ability of our readers to decide for themselves what is useful.
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