Instructions: Respond to a minimum of two of your classmate’s posts.

Original Post: Select two of the techniques described in Chapter 9 and one technique demonstrated in the video, People Skills: Productive Counseling, that reflect an experience or experiences you have witnessed and the effects of using those techniques. Why do you believe it helped or harmed? How could a different technique been more useful or less helpful?

Classmate #1 Labraya Wardlow

Hello,

• One technique from the video “People Skills: Productive counseling”, I feel that I have experienced the use of the advice style to the approach of counseling. I have surely experienced this in my life time. For example while working I was trying to transfer internal departments within the hospital. While discussing my new venture with my supervisor, instead of her applying the question style technique she more so insisted on telling me what to do. Her need to tell me that right now the department needed me and that I should wait until a later time really made me uncomfortable and frustrated. With my supervisor choosing to use that technique made me feel that I didn’t deserve to advance. I believe using the question style technique would have been more effective for her to gain a better understanding of just why I wanted to transfer departments.
• One technique from chapter 9 that I can reflect on is the use of small talk. I do feel that small talk is necessary in communication and can bring ease to an individual but I also believe it can be over done. For example my co worker and I were on a lunch break and the union steward in our department decided to come make small talk with us, which we both agreed on was strange. Well after a few moments of conversation the union steward never got around to inform the employee on just what he originally came over to discuss with her. The technique of using small talk got carried away and never addressed the point of the conversation.
• Another technique I may reflect on from chapter 9 is support. I had a patient that was very close to me and my spouse. He was a terminally ill patient still smoking cigarettes. He wanted me to not disclose that I had ever seen him become hospitalized or even still smoking. I had provided as much support to his decision to not disclose any information as possible. This technique gave me the skill to support and uphold his wishes regardless to how I felt about it. Not only was I supporting his decision but also helped keep his information confidential. I supported him also by visiting him frequently for when he needed to talk.

Levine, J. (2013). Working with People: The Helping Process (9th ed.)

People Skills: Productive Counseling video

6/4/2020 LW

Classmate #2 Emily Wiliamson

Hello Labraya,
I am very sorry to hear about the response from your supervisor. If I were your service worker, I might recommend looking at the positive side; you have been on the other side of the conversation. This makes you more sympathetic and empathetic with the discussions you will have with your clients. Using the questioning theory in your scenario would have allowed you to share what you have already begun to offer to your department, what you currently succeed in, and your interest in where you are going. Letting you ask these questions without giving you a rejection because of their preference, would have created a more beneficial relationship between you and you’re superior, it also would not have changed your work ethic that day. I think that small talk would not necessarily matter in most of my scenarios, other than maybe passing in the lunchroom. However, support is what your supervisor should have immediately shared with you. Your concerns in your position would have offered more pride in her current team and highlighted what you would continue to provide in your time in the department