Circle Center's Five Stages

Due to my role within a youth club the service which I carryout is communicating with the young people, building a relationship with them so they know they have someone to talk to if any issue arises. Planning and organising activities seeing what the young people enjoy allow them to learn new things taking them out of their comfort zone. Making sure young people feel safe within the centre, making sure young people sign in before they use our facilities. Also debriefing at the end express any concerns we may have as staff regarding young people.

The two key learning points that I found personally meaningful in this class were managing conflict and mindful listening. I feel that both of this points are very important in having good interpersonal communication skills and it is imperative for anyone to work on these skills to help have better relationships with people.

A Service Learning project is one of the project requirements to complete the Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree through Ferris State University (FSU). My Service Learning experience was completed at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in November, 2014. This paper includes details of the facility along with the contact information for the coordinator of the project. A description of my role as a volunteer, critical reflection of my experience, and a synthesis of the Service Learning are also included.

Interpersonal communication can be defined a number of ways, but it is usually described as communication between or among connected persons, or those in a close relationship. Over the past few weeks, I have really been able to examine my own interpersonal communication between and among the people I am connected to or have close relationships with. Prior to this course, I felt my interpersonal communication skills were above average and very effective. However, I have discovered there are many ways I can improve my interpersonal communications and relationships with others. Through the exercises conducted during this course I have realized that I need to work on my effective listening, perception of others and how my nonverbal cues can cause

Accurate empathy - accurately sensing the client's world and communicating that understanding. Genuineness - self-awareness, honesty and openness; being real (not phony). Unconditional positive regard - accepting and valuing the client as a unique and worthwhile person, being nonjudgmental. Active listening - listening carefully and empathically to the client's story with undistracted attentiveness to 1) gain an understanding of the client's problem, 2) learn how the client thinks, feels and acts, 3) discover the client's strengths, assets and personal power, and 4) build rapport with the client. This includes maintaining comfortable eye contact and open body posture. Reflecting - mirroring the client's thoughts and feelings to demonstrate active listening and encourage the client to continue speaking. This includes: Restating - repeating verbatim the main thought or feeling expressed by the client. Paraphrasing - stating, in your own words, the main thought or feeling expressed by the client. This 1) lets the client know you are working to understand what they are communicating, 2) brings focus to the client's communication, 3) allows the client to correct any misperceptions or misunderstandings, and 4) encourages client self-exploration. Summarizing - summarizing, in your words, a set of thoughts or feelings expressed by the client. Open-ended questioning - Asking questions that require more than a minimal or one-word response by the client. They usually begin

After her time at the habilitation program, she moved to Colorado. Her first job in Colorado was at the Rise School of Denver, which “provides services to children with and without disabilities through an inclusive education model.” During her time at the Rise School, the executive director of Adams Camp reached out to her and provided a job description that immediately captured her interest. She rapidly transitioned into the Adams Camp environment and found her home. Jordan has the opportunity to serve 350 families every year in both Adventure Camp and other therapeutic programs that is offered by Adams Camp. But, it hasn’t all been an easy road for her at Adams Camp. She voiced, “With an aging population, we are tasked with creating age appropriate services for all. The other challenge is finding more empowering opportunities for our population.” Most people with developmental disabilities can live a long and fulfilled life, but their special needs vary by age. At the moment, Adams Camp prioritizes younger clients in order to prepare them properly for their futures. But because Jordan is so dedicated to improving the lives’ of others, she

Listening is a skill that requires active, rather than passive, participation to advance shared understanding and minimise misinterpretation. Lang, Floyd and Beine (2000) describe active listening as a skill that ‘focuses on attending to patients’ clues, ie, utterances and/or behaviors that are not explicit but may have special meaning and suggest unshared ideas, concerns, and expectations’. This essay will discuss how active listening strategies such as analysing and displaying non-verbal body language, clarifying meaning and accuracy, expressing understanding for the speaker’s feelings through empathy and silence contribute to effective communication by encouraging the speaker to convey his or her thoughts, building trust and

When I was in the social worker role I made sure to look at my client in the eye when they were speaking to me to validate that I was listening. While listening I made sure to listen actively by summarizing what the client was saying and remembered to say things that could reassure the client that I am trying to understand what they are feeling. Examples of this are phrases such as: “I hear what you are saying that you felt this way” and “I don’t know what you’re feeling but it must be hard on you to feel this way”. Which in turn also helped me create open ended questions to ask the client. By being an active listener and empathizing with the client it makes it easier to ask open ended questions because I have more information to work on than if I was not really listening or being sympathetic instead of empathetic. I can ask questions that can fill in any loop holes that might be able to help to understand my clients’ strengths or what their needs are. I am glad that I learned that I have these strengths as a social worker and how these strengths will be great tools to help my future

Over this summer course I have learned a lot about communication. I learned how significant nonverbal and verbal communication is, along with listening. I never fully understood how big communication is in our daily lives. I now realize that it is a huge aspect of how we continue in our lives. This course has showed me different levels of communication.

Sanders (2011) argues that “By talking about ourselves as honestly as we can in a safe environment and listening to the feedback from others, we can check whether the view we have of ourselves is the one received by others” (Sanders, 2011, p61). Feedback not only raises our awareness to what we say but, and perhaps more importantly, how we say it - our non-verbal communication. The influence of non-verbal communication on a clients view of their counsellor can be taught, but I was amazed at just how unaware I was of my own body language. During my first few triads I could not control my hands, eventually opting to sit on them which was perceived as uncomfortable and a result of my nervousness. “Receiving feedback gives us a chance to change and modify in order to communicate more effectively” (Tolan & Lendrum, 1995, p30) and creates awareness of the importance of effective communication when building a genuine relationship with your client. Receiving feedback can also raise our awareness of the value of receiving genuine feedback itself, as well as a need to sensitively communicate feedback to others. This also creates a greater sense of empathy toward others.

However, I may have not used all the skills necessary to draw out the client’s feelings and meaning in a therapeutic way (Ivey & Ivey, 2007). I used open ended and closed questions to gather more in depth information from the client. For example, “What are your expectations?” and “Would you be satisfied with your grades if your parents do not pressure you?” I also used encouragers such as head nods and repetition of key words stated by the client. I also summarized her story several times to clarify with the client that I was hearing her correctly. I felt that she was motivated to elaborate (Ivey & Ivey, 2007, pg 231). I also used some observation skills such as observing the client’s verbal and non verbal behaviours, e.g. her voice tone, eye contact and the way she was sitting at certain point in the session. While I listened to the tape, I realized that I had empathized and reflected on the client’s feelings a few times and this was done later in the interview. Not reflecting empathy earlier led the client to think that I did not understand her situation. Also, I imposed my values on the client by telling her that eighty percent is good even though she clearly stated that it is really bad for her. I thought this would have made her feel better but it did not. If I were to meet this client again for the same issue I would reflect empathy by saying the following: “Getting good grades means a lot to you. I can see

Looking back on the past few weeks of practicum, there have been many opportunities for personal reflection and connection between my placement and the course work. To describe my role, I am placed in the Outreach and Advocacy program at Chimo Community Services. From what I understand so far, I will have a few clients each day that come in with different issues. We assist them in navigating these issues an advocating for them when necessary. For example, some clients will come in with limited English proficiencies or disabilities and will need assistance filling out forms. Other times, clients need assistance navigating complicated government and structural applications like Canada Pension Plan, BC Housing, and Income Assistance.

In chapter 7, Hill mentions minimal verbal behaviors that can help to encourage the client to continue with their story and that we are attending and listening. I agree that this can be helpful in encouraging the client to continue with their story, though I am concerned that it would not be enough. The content of these chapters have helped with the realization that although we already know the words, being comfortable and fluent with the phrases and open-ended questions can be similar to learning an entirely new language. To illustrate, in doing the role-play with the intake, I found it most challenging to simultaneously keep to the script and actively listen to the story that was being narrated.

stories, we may get caught up in our own emotional reactions, how we would feel if we were in a similar situation. To listen empathically, you have to set aside as much as you can of your own "stuff" and enter the world of the client.

There is a significant difference between my perception of communication at the beginning of this course compared to now. Initially, I was aware communication was an important skill people needed to have, but I wasn’t fully aware of the depth of communication. I never realized there were such a variety of behaviors and characteristics that impacted the ability for people to communicate effectively. Once I started completing the self-assessments my perspective was broaden and I gained helpful insight into my own communication strengths and weaknesses. With each self-assessment I truly felt I was getting to know myself better.