EDU 546: Interpersonal, Communication, and Helping Skills in Counseling

EDU 546: Interpersonal, Communication, and Helping Skills in Counseling

 Integrative Final Paper/Case Study

 To assess your understanding and knowledge of basic interpersonal, communication, and helping skills in counseling, you are towrite and submit an APA-formatted paper at least seven (7) pages in length consisting of the Title Page, a minimum of five (5) full pages of text, and the References Page.

You are to write from the perspective and persona of a public high school counselor who has provided individual counselingfor an anxious 14-year old African-Caribbean male freshman named “Dakari”over the course of six (6) weekly appointments (i.e., “initial session” through the ”termination session”)

Information about Dakari that may be helpful:

• Dakari was referred to counseling by his science teacher. The science teacher has observed over the course of the school year that Dakari always appears to be “on edge” with nervousness and anxiety. The nervousness and anxiety adversely affect Dakari’s academic performance, interpersonal skills, and overall self-esteem and self-efficacy.  The adverse effects are reflected multiple ways, including communicating and engaging with others, quiz and test performance, and his general mannerisms.

 

• Dakari’s parents separated the summer before his freshman year, and his mother secured a restraining order against his father shortly thereafter due to violent threats his father made to her and the children (Dakari has two younger siblings: a 10-year old sister and a six-year old brother).

 

• This is Dakari’s first year of public school. Previously, he only attended local private schools.  All of his close friends attend the private school he last attended.

 

• Dakari has assumed the roles of caregiver and “man of the house” in many respects since his parents’ separation (e. g., he babysits, cooks and cleans, and looks out for his younger siblings most of the time since his mother now works two jobs).

 

• Dakari seems to be uncertain about his future in terms of education and career.

 

• He is teased, if not bullied, by male peers for not being interested in typical adolescent boy “things” (i. e., videogames, sports and athletics, sexual exploration with adolescent females, et cetera). He is drawn to the fine arts (i.e., the visual and performing arts) and nature.

Among the helping and counseling qualities, skills, and abilities you should demonstrate include: unconditional positive regard, empathy, genuineness, SOLER, appropriate use of the “You feel __________ because__________” formula, and appropriate use of probing (via statements, requests, questions, and/or one-word or short-word phrases).  You also should demonstrate understanding and knowledge of Egan’s three-stage model for problem-management and opportunity development and the tasks associated with each stage. Moreover, you should include detailed discussion on at least three (3) of the basic counseling microskills demonstrated in the YouTube video, Basic Counseling Skills: Kim Lampson, PhD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ankWMLepQsE), that was watched and covered in this course.