Collaborative Helping Skills is a T1 for courses in the helping professions that helps students learn the basic skills of helping. The course is a requirement for any student in counseling, psychotherapy, or social work as it prepares the student for the work they will be doing with clients. This book has a focus on developing skills that are collaborative by involving the client in the helping process/solution and it has an integrated focus on multicultural skills and social justice. The book first outlines the basic process of counseling and counselor self care, then goes into conversation and counseling, receiving, attending, listening, positive regard, empathy, and connection. Then the author moves into the basics of developing a relationship with the client as well as relating to the experience. Finally the book moves toward the treatment planning stage via a shared experience by involving the client in the process. Every chapter will contain the following pedagogy: • Case study • Sample dialogue • Chapter objectives • Boxed capsules to highlight key skills • Reflections on practice • Experiential exercises • questions for reflection • Video demonstrations

Promoting Change
Promoting change

This fifth section of the book makes more explicit the focus on what is arguably the central purpose of counseling: change. You may notice I didn't say the section introduces the topic, because the numerous skills already featured in the text are ultimately aimed at promoting change. That's because they're devoted to a movement away from distress or suffering, a movement that suggests some form of change in acting, thinking, feeling, and so on.

Spatial metaphors have appeared from time to time in these pages to capture that sense of movement: Weingarten's (1998) reference to clients as “fellow travelers,” the idea of helping clients move forward, the notion of seeking out new territories of living. White (2007) uses the term “transport” to ...

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