Therapeutic Communication
According to France, Weikel & Kish (2006), clients in helping relationships make progress when they feel understood and actively work toward goals they value. A vast body of research suggests that regardless of whom clients work with, they feel a strong bond with the human services provider if they are involved in their healing process. The human services profession is meant to meet client needs in myriad ways. Human services providers must possess sufficient knowledge to prevent and remediate human services problems. Besides, human services providers should be committed to improving the quality of the services populations they serve.
Human services providers must commit to specific predetermined roles and responsibilities to meet the needs of individual, group, and community clients. The nature of these roles and responsibilities necessitates applying empathy to meet clients’ needs, build trust, and understand their problems precisely (France, Weikel & Kish, 2006). All human services providers, from the advocate, administrator, and evaluator, must commit to meeting client needs through empathy. Applying empathy will help human services providers meet the specific needs of the populations they serve since people from different geographical areas have diverse needs.
A fundamental expression of empathy is the complete understanding of a client’s needs without bias. Human services providers meet with clients one-on-one; thus, the latter must show clients that they have understood their problems without judgment (Bayne, Pusateri & Dean, 2012). A positive application of empathy is required instead of subtractive empathy, which results in adverse outcomes. A human services provider needs to show that they have understood client needs superficially. They must also show they have understood such problems beyond what a client could express orally. Achieving an understanding that exceeds the client’s expression is additive empathy. Additive empathy helps clients attain new ways of thinking about issues, a positive step toward their therapeutic recovery.
Often, empathy is regarded as being core to mental health treatment since it helps mental health professionals create a relationship rapport and therapeutic alliance. As a result, clients attain positive outcomes of mental health treatment. Well-documented research proves that incorporating empathy on top of traditional therapeutic modalities helps clients achieve better care outcomes. Positive empathy helps reduce client insecurities and anxiety; hence, they own up to their problems and commit to positive change.
According to Bayne, Pusateri & Dean (2012), the application of empathy in human services is different from its application in counseling and therapeutic services. In counseling and therapeutic services, empathy is meant to drive therapeutic outcomes. However, compassion is intended to build a relationship between the service provider and the client in the human services profession. Being empathetic helps the human services professional acquire information from the client by making them feel accepted. Essentially, one ought to be in the client’s shoes to understand why they act the way they do. Failure to do this can only make clients insecure about sharing crucial information.
Furthermore, the importance of expressing warmth during the provision of human services cannot be overstated. The human services professional must connect personally with the client and not just attend to them to fulfill their roles as human services providers. Besides, warmth requires the service provider to communicate the client’s feelings emotionally (Peterson, 2015). That will allow clients to discuss their issues introspectively without asking many questions.
Peterson (2015) emphasizes the importance of warmth in client-human services provider relationships by emphasizing the importance of the listeners’ role to get the talker’s side of the story, irrespective of the current emotions. That means that human services providers should remain objective, regardless of the feelings that may rent the air when clients express their problems. For instance, when clients start crying when narrating their stories, it would be prudent to hand them a handkerchief instead of asking them lots of questions. I am quite sensitive to people’s warmth or lack thereof. For instance, If I visit someone and they offer me a cup of coffee or offer their arms for a hearty hug, I usually feel welcomed and a sense of warmth.
Even the bible emphasizes empathy among the bereaved or victims of the tragedy. According to John 1:35, ‘Jesus wept.’ The verse refers to the moment when Jesus was about to visit Lazarus’ home. He found the family of the late Lazarus crying, and he joined them. Jesus knew that it was a matter of minutes before resurrecting Lazarus but still did not turn a blind eye to the mourners. Jesus never tried to scold them out of their lack of faith or even dismiss them. Instead, He was touched when he saw people mourning and joined along.
Moreover, genuineness in the human services profession also matters. Essentially, being genuine is all about being concerned about the other party without any sense of hypocrisy (Peterson, 2015). A human services professional must be competent enough to express their true feelings without showing any sense of hypocrisy. I think genuineness cannot be faked since it comes out of the heart.
In conclusion, I think warmth, genuineness, and empathy are critical elements for creating an effective therapeutic process in the human services field. Applying these essential attributes helps attain cooperation from the person under treatment, speeding their healing process. These vital communication components help drive satisfaction for the client by making them feel engaged in information delivery. In the long run, the three components play an important role in a client’s healing process by offering therapeutic communication and being the best indicators of how clients may react to a planned therapeutic process by human services providers.
References
Bayne, H. B., Pusateri, C., & Dean-Nganga, L. (2012). The use of empathy in human services: Strategies for diverse professional roles. Journal of Human Services, 32(1).
France, K., Weikel, K., & Kish, M. (2006). Helping skills for human service workers: Building relationships and encouraging productive change. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas.
Petersen, J. (2007). Why Don’t We Listen Better?: Communicating & Connecting in Relationships. James C. Petersen.
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REFLECTION PAPER ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
The goal of reflective writing is to interact with and integrate new information and apply it to what you already know and practice, thereby achieving personal growth.
Therapeutic Communication
You will write a total of four reflection papers in this course. Each paper has a specific topic. All four papers have the same basic purpose, structure, and format. Each paper must maintain a good balance between 1) examination and discussion of relevant course materials on the topic and 2) self-reflection on how these phenomena play out in your own interpersonal communication contexts.