Helping Skills and the Human Services Professional Practitioner
The Roles of the Human Services Professional Practitioner in the Helping Process
Human services professional practitioners have been referred to as helping agents who facilitate change processes at all societal levels (Moffat, 2011). All human services professionals have fundamental roles. According to Geroski (2017), human services professionals evaluate a client’s needs, establish a treatment plan, and implement the plan. More specifically, they work closely with their clients to identify and understand their needs and establish a treatment plan. According to Geroski (2017), evaluating the client’s needs entails evaluating the client’s values, environment, and support system, all of which are directed toward the individual’s needs. Moreover, even though human services professionals are allowed to evaluate the client’s needs, they are not allowed to coerce assistance from clients who do not want help, and they cannot control the lives of their clients (Moffat, 2011). Their main role is to facilitate great decision-making by giving clients direction and proper perspectives of their problems based on their professional evaluation. This means that they assist the clients in making important decisions, get resources to address their issues, and inspire them to make enhancements (Moffat, 2011).
Moreover, in implementing the plans, the human services professional practitioner assists clients in meeting their daily activities such as dressing, exercising, eating healthy, or any other activities. They are responsible for coordinating services that may be provided by other agencies or organizations or their own organization (Moffat, 2011). They may assist clients through research for eligible organizations that would address the client’s problems. For example, a human services professional practitioner may help a client find an organization that provides socio-therapy for clients with different levels of autism spectrum disorder. Human services professionals also oversee the entire process once the client starts receiving treatment. Throughout the process, the practitioners are responsible for providing emotional support for their clients to ensure they are comfortable enough to share their problems honestly (Geroski, 2017).
How Helping Skills Contribute to the Effectiveness of Human Services Professional Practitioner’s Roles
Helping skills such as cognitively complex skills help the human services professional practitioner to comprehend the clients’ world and how they view things. This would help them view the client’s problems with objectivity and rationality. In addition, competence would enable the practitioner to be familiar with and knowledgeable about the recent developments in research and treatment (Neukrug, 2021). This would give them a better hand in recommending proper and effective treatments for their clients. If the practitioner is culturally sensitive, they would understand their client’s identity and perspectives, how their cultural views influence their problems, and how their attitudes and beliefs would impact the helping relationship. Emotional intelligence has become an attractive skill in most industries if not all. Human services professional practitioners are expected to be able to analyze their own emotions and those of the clients and know the appropriate moments to share their thoughts and feelings (Neukrug, 2021). This is crucial to avoid the projection of one’s problems to the client and to be able to stay focused on the issue at hand.
Viewing the “Whole Picture”
Moreover, viewing the whole picture to notice things that may be hidden/obscured in human services is important to make a professional judgment of giving services and maintaining the margins of competence (BCBA, 2023). It is important in human services to avoid providing inappropriate treatment or referring clients to the wrong organizations that would not really address their problem(s). The whole picture view would also help the professional maintain the integrity and respect of clients because missing the whole picture may prolong or create new problems for the client and ruin the organization’s reputation. Sometimes, it can even create legal issues and risks of loss of operation license and career. As stipulated in the ethics code for behavior analysts section 1: code 1.05, professionals need to practice within their scope of competence (BCBA, 2023). This means that viewing the whole picture will enable them to understand the client’s problem as well as the extent to which they can help them and where they cannot help them, depending on their competence. For example, picture the event where an organization specializes in giving services to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and a client comes seeking assistance for a child who is not feeding well. Then, a supervisor asks a newly certified assistant behavior analyst (who has specialized in clients with autism) to attend to a child with a complicated feeding problem. The supervisor insists that the child is in dire need of assistance and that the assistant behavior analyst can research dietary disorders and attend to the child. Suppose the assistant behavior analyst and supervisor fail to see the bigger picture that they have no professional experience and know-how to provide professional services to the child and that the child’s health is at risk. In that case, they stand to face serious consequences. In this case example, both the supervisor and the assistant behavior analysts are inexperienced in dealing with feeding disorders and have a client whose health is at risk. If the organization were to overlook these specifics and take the child’s case, they risk legal issues, especially when the child’s health deteriorates or new complications arise. They also risk losing their license of operation because they would be violating the code of ethics of behavior analysts based on responsible conduct and consultation code (BCBA, 2023). The organization’s reputation would also be jeopardized, and they may even lose clients.
References
BCBA. (2023). Ethics Codes. https://www.bacb.com/ethics-information/ethics-codes/
Geroski, A. M. (2017). Skills for helping professionals. SAGE Publications.
Moffat, C.T. (2011). Helping those in Need: Human Service Workers. Occupational Outlook Quarterly.
Neukrug, E. (2021). Skills and techniques for human service professionals: Counseling environment, helping skills, treatment issues (2nd ed.). Cognella.
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Question
While this course uses the terms “helping skills” and “helping process” as standard language, these skills and processes encompass more than simply “helping.” The relationship should be one in which the service user is empowered to create change in their own life, rather than the practitioner enacting or dictating that change. Naturally, a power dynamic exists in any situation where one person seeks services and another provides them. However, it is the practitioner’s responsibility to minimize the power differential in their interactions and uphold human services’ ethical standards.
So, what roles does the practitioner actually play in this relationship? And how do helping skills facilitate those roles?

Helping Skills and the Human Services Professional Practitioner
In this Assignment, you explore the value of helping skills in human services. You also isolate the importance of one particular skill, holistic appraisal—in other words, assessing a service user’s circumstances through a wide lens to see the whole picture.
Write a 2-page paper defining helping skills and explaining their importance in human services. Specifically:
Describe the human services professional practitioner’s roles in the helping process.
Explain how helping skills contribute to the effectiveness of those roles.
Based on the Selective Attention Test in the Pre-Discussion Activities, you know about viewing the “whole picture” in order to notice things that may be hidden or obscured. Why is this especially important in human services? Provide a human service–a specific example where a practitioner does or does not see the whole picture. Explain the potential impact on the service user in the example.
sources
Neukrug, E. (2021). Skills and techniques for human service professionals: Counseling environment, helping skills, treatment issues (2nd ed.). Cognella.
Chapter 1: Eight Characteristics of the Effective Helper (pp. 3–18)
Geroski, A. M. (2017). Self-awareness, cultural awareness, and helper competence Download Self-awareness, cultural awareness, and helper competence. In Skills for helping professionals (pp. 115–138). SAGE.
Credit line: Skills for helping professionals, by Geroski, A. M. Copyright 2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Healy, B. (2018). Attention, please link to an external site.. Atlantic, 322(5), 17.
Subramanian, K. R. (2018). Myth and mystery of shrinking attention spanLinks to an external site.. International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, 5(3), 1–6. http://www.ijtrd.com/ViewFullText.aspx?Id=16531