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Human Services and Helping Skills

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Human Services and Helping Skills Anjelica McCartneyBSHS/305May 23, 2016Cassidy Hawf | | | |

Human Services and Helping Skills

The human service field is a very rewarding field to work in. Human service professionals have the privilege to help others when in need. However, for human service professionals to accomplish this they must be knowledgeable about and possess a broad range of helping skills. These helping skills are vital to the effectiveness of the services the client receives and to ensure that the individual receives the best possible support and can successfully meet their goals. The five stages of helping skills include preparation, client arrival, exploring the problem, intervention, and termination. In addition to the helping skills, there are also barriers that an individual may face that the human services professional and the client must overcome together.
Helping Skills There is a wide array of skills that is pertinent for a human service professional to possess to help engage the client and have a successful outcome. Some of these skills include: active listening, observing, responding, knowing cultural differences and good communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Active listening is one of the most important skills for a helper to practice. When you actively listen to the client it is easier to relate to the individual and to get a better understanding of what exactly the problem is, as well as what caused the problem. Active listening will and remaining nonjudgmental will help the client to: feel more comfortable, more relaxed, important, understood, be more trusting and possibly even forth coming with information. Active listening, being nonjudgmental and observing will help with assessing the problem and help the client realize that you care and want to provide guidance so they can achieve the goal of self-sufficiency.

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