Is Community Accommodations Work?

Empathy is a two way process, its about trying to fully understand what your client is saying and feeling and also showing your understanding to your client.

Gerard Egan’s 3 Stage Skilled Helper Mode 1994, provides a basic guideline on how helping relationships should be carried out. It is important that helpers take into consideration the steps provided in the Egan’s mode as it provides structure and positive support to clients.

What does it mean to be self-aware? In simple terms, it is the ability to know who you are. Although self-awareness seems like a simple practice, it can be extremely difficult due to the way we perceive ourselves. We perceive ourselves as something we are not, usually influencing our self-awareness with the bias of who we think we are in terms of who we want to be. The key to self-awareness is removing bias from the equation and making a truthful evaluation of who we are. This includes actually being aware of how we live, think, and act.

By being aware of the essential communication skills, I believe it does not only make me a better helper but also a better friend and listener. In this paper I will discuss about my personal experience as a helper during a counselling session and also reflect on what I have learnt during the previous 10 weeks in the classroom.

The first concept i will be discussing is empthy, which is discussed in Chapter six (Shebib, 2003). Empathy is the ability to correctly interpret another person's feelings to show them you understand. So, empathy is not something we have, but something we do. Empathy is a skill and an attitude and not a feeling (sympathy is a feeling). It is about being able and willing to understand another person from their own point of view, without your own thoughts, feelings, opinions and judgements getting in the way of this understanding. This

• Empathy: Empathy is someone who is able to feel what others feel and see things in other people’s point of view.

Self-awareness involves the ability to understand and evaluate your own emotions through reflection, self-comparisons and feedback from others (Steiner, 2014). Self-awareness aims at enhancing self-knowledge, behavioral, and emotional improvements, and accommodating weaknesses (Steiner, 2014). It allows individuals to understand how they think, behave, and respond to situations that they encounter. To achieve this, feedback from other people is required. People who are self-aware are self-driven, resourceful, eager to learn, self-motivated, and problem-solvers. They also portray independence of self-concept (Steiner, 2014). Self-awareness helps an individual to practice effective self-management.

Within this assignment I will explore the ways in which I relate to others. I will identify any barriers or difficulties which could affect my ability to relate to others and therefore have an adverse effect on my role as a helper. Egan (1994) states that to be a fully developed helper, a key component is self awareness. He also suggests that there can be a “shadow side” to helping, which can adversely affect the outcome of the helping process.

Empathy is being able to understand and share another person’s feelings or emotions. It allows a team to develop trust and understand others. Leaders who express empathy towards their team shows that they truly care about the people within their team.

Counseling skills has provided me with a valuable insight into the helping relationship and how it is both created and maintained in order to encourage growth and development in the client. The factors involved within the helping relationship include considering Roger’s core conditions, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy as the three main characteristics necessary in a helping relationship. In order to fully incorporate all three of Roger’s core conditions, I as the counselor must be self-aware, as a lack of self-awareness may inhibit truly listening and understanding the client; self-awareness can be enhanced through exercises such as Johari’s window. Counseling skills such as body language and active listening also

This goal is to help the client become a more cooperative person, and this starts with learning to cooperate in changing their reaction. When the client's cooperation it can help in the discovery of some new helpful ideas, the client may need to express a great deal of distress with little interruption but soon learn to calm down.

The dictionary defines empathy as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions”, but personally I believe it is far more complex (Merriam-Webster). To me, empathy is more than the ability to understand another’s emotions or experiences, it is the ability to see beyond yourself and your world without being prompted to. I Those who have the greatest amount of empathy do not need to be told that there are people in the world that struggle and face sadness. It is in their nature to know that it is this way and they feel for their fellow being, wanting to help in some way. Throughout this semester I have come to understand that empathy plays a key role in defining an individual, a community, and how the two interact with each other. There is a distinct differences between those individuals that have empathy and those that do not, it shows clearly in their attitude and actions towards others. It is those individuals that have empathy that make up strong communities, and empathy is arguably the most important part of a community because it allows for a sense of understanding and togetherness.

Empathy is often described as having consideration of someone else feelings. Webster defines empathy as, the feeling that you understand and share another 's experience and emotions. Empathy consists of having the ability to feel another person 's feelings and the ability to place oneself in another person shoes or situation. In counseling, the therapist is expected to show empathy for their clients whose experiences are different from the counselor. The role of the counselor is to support the client with any issues or concerns. The role empathy plays in counseling.

The Self-Awareness process requires that you have motivation and courage to observe and gather information about your thoughts, feelings, attitude, reactions and behaviors and see the connection between them.

Empathy is a feeling of putting yourself on others situation, giving caring and understanding the circumstances of someones who need help, being aware of what others felt behind his/her struggles and also a feeling you want to comfort his/her despite of their worst experiences.