Guided Response: Consider ways in which you might like to interact with your peers. For example, do you have any ideas regarding different techniques and styles your peers’ selected professional might use? Have you seen any of these in action in the human services field? Respond to 2 classmates, 100 words per response.

*****Original Post***

How many times have you either asked or been asked, “Are you listening?” While we might think we know what it means to be an effective listener, different skills are needed to suit different situations. In the human services field, listening is a multi-faceted task that must take into account the needs of the client and the situation being addressed. In this first discussion, you will consider a range of listening skills and how they may be used in a human services setting. Specifically, you will identify active listening skills used within interpersonal and group settings.

Read Chapter 6 of The Interpersonal Communication Book; review the five human service career paths from Human Service Careers (Links to an external site.) provided by Films on Demand:

• Early Child Development & Services (03:01)
• Counseling and Mental Health Services (04:17)
• Family & Community Services (07:00)
• Personal Care Services (03:54)
• Consumer Services (04:11)

Consider the stages and skills associated with effective listening and reflect on the essential responsibilities associated with one human service career path.

Classmate # 1

Maritza

Week 3 – Discussion # 1 Listening in Human Services

Mental Health counselor is a person who works with individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health. they typically work directly with clients and sometimes with their families. they work with people who are dealing with stressful and difficult situations. For a Professional, Empathic and Objective listening would be one of the styles of listening to use, the clients may have mental or physical distractions you will need to listen with Empathy, listen with an open mind, not be judgemental. Be aware to fully understand what they are saying so you could understand their intentions and the issue that they are trying to communicate to you.

As a Mental Health counselor professional, I would apply a One-On-One client interaction at first to make sure to develop trust and understanding of what they need help with and that way you get to know your clients and their needs. Once you feel that your client will feel comfortable and willing to interact with others in a group session, I would facilitate a group session, that way the client can interact with others in the group that may have similar issues or common ground. Sometimes when you listen to others speak you realize that what they are speaking about may be helpful to you and that you may have the same interest.

One of the basic counseling skills Professionals can use in an Interpersonal and Group setting is ” An open question”- which could be used to gather lots of information , which part of being a Mental Health professional is to gather information and develop a plan with the information obtained from your client., in order to provide them a good service and help them.

Another Counseling technique would be “Closed question” – which can be used to gather specific information, it can normally be answered with a short phrase which is considered” to be a good counseling technique”.

Paraphrasing is used to restate what you are saying and the listener may be drawing attention to a particular concern and the techniques can be used in a One -on -one- setting, you can use to get as much information that you need in order to help your client pinpoint their issues and to evaluate them and set up a plan.

“Remember both listener and speaker share the responsibility for effective listening”.

References

Basic Counseling Skills. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.basic-counseling-skills.com/.

Burnard, P. (1992). Listening skills. Effective Communication Skills for Health Professionals, 49–61.

DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Classmate #2

Tiffany

Since I am interested in the Counseling and Mental Health Services career path, I thought I’d focus on what I think may be most effective for this type of professional. This professional is expected to help assist individuals with their problems and decision making. It is important to be a good listener who actively listens for meaning. For example, it’s been my experience with counselors in the one- on- one interaction, I find that they do very little talking in the beginning. I now know they are gathering all of the information they can to give the best advice possible to assist in solving the problem. In this setting the active listening techniques that were used were open questions, paraphrasing, note-taking, and summarizing. I can see how these active listening skills would be beneficial in either the one-on-one client interaction or group setting. In either case, the counselor would need to periodically ask open ended questions for an individual that may have problems fully expressing themselves, these questions will guide them to give more detail, rather than a one word affirmative or negative response. The paraphrasing technique would be a method to not only show the speaker that you understand what is being said, but that you want to clarify it to be their understanding as well. I think note-taking is a very valuable tool, that will help you recall information at a later time, that maybe you did not think you should interrupt the speaker on at that time. Summarizing will bring the main ideas of the conversing together to make sure you are correct before giving your advice. Two interviewing skills that I would apply in both the interpersonal and group setting are setting up the room and the first few seconds, I believe this two skills build upon first impressions. I believe both the setting in which the interaction will take place and the counselor need to present an environment that sets the tone for friendliness and warmth. These will help make the client(s) feel more comfortable and at ease to share.

References:

Basic Counseling Skills. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.basic-counseling-skills.com/.

Burnard, P. (1992). Listening skills. Effective Communication Skills for Health Professionals, 49–61.

DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.