Pro Skills Final Test

Week 7 – Use of Self in a Professional Relationship:

·         Self-awareness

o   Side effect:

§  Seeing ourselves more clearly

o   Examples

§  Mindfulness and meditation

§  Yoga

§  Journalling

§  Seeking feedback from people you love

·         Self-disclosure

o   Definition:

§  Communication that involves intentionally sharing personal information about self with another person

o   Effective practitioner self-disclosure

§  Mutual empathy

§  Requires authenticity and mutuality

§  May assist clients in clarifying their own experiences

§  Does not invalidate client’s perspective

§  Does not make client feel like they need to align their perspectives with those disclosed by the practitioner

o   Benefits to self-disclosure

§  Forming or strengthening a connection with the client

§  Maintaining presence

§  Engagement in Therapeutic Recreation activities

o   Questions to ask self about disclosure

§  Who benefits the client or me?

§  Will the client be able to use information I share in a helpful way?

§  Will the information I share interfere with progress or the therapeutic alliance?

·         Transference & Countertransference:

o   Transference:

§  Client’s feelings toward practitioner that are related to client’s past experiences and relationships

o   Countertransference:

§  Practitioner’s feelings toward client that are related to past experiences and relationships

o   Key take aways:

§  Can be conscious or subconscious

§  Can be positive or negative

§  Can negatively impact practitioner-client relationship

§  Importance of demonstrating interpersonal sensitivity

§  Importance of acknowledging and managing countertransference

·         Immediacy

o   A communication skill

o   “Staying here and now”

§  Ability of the helper to use the immediate situation to invite the client to look at what is going on between them in the relationship

o   Requires self-awareness, critical thinking, and careful consideration

Week 8 – Empathy and Vulnerability:

·         “Dance of disclosure” with context of empathy

o   The dance of disclosure with the context of empathy, is knowing when and what to share, while also keeping the focus on the client

·         Empathy and strength-based practice

o   Listening, understanding, and then communicating our understanding back to clients

·         Sense that therapists are different from client

o   Benefits:

§  Create a sense of respect and willingness to engage between therapist and client

§  Clients reassured by expertise, education, and professionalism

§  Buffer for therapist, cushioning fears of inadequacy or credibility

o   Risks:

§  Clients feel that cannot be understood by therapist

§  Therapists create an impermeable barrier between self and client

§  Clients may be unwilling to commit to relationship and process

·         Brene Brown

o   Empathy vs sympathy

§  Empathy = feeling with

§  Sympathy = feeling for

o   Vulnerability

§  Willingness to do something

·         Saying ‘I love you”

·         Engage in a relationship (not knowing whether it will work or not)

§  Embracing vulnerability

·         Allowing ourselves to be seen

·         Love, even when there is no guarantee

·         Practice love and joy, through terror and fear

·         Believe we are enough

o   Things wholehearted subjects have in common

§  Courage

§  Compassion

§  Connection

§  Vulnerability

Week 9 – Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility

·         Concept of culture

o   Learned and share values, beliefs, and behaviours of a community of interacting people

o   Sum of total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings, which is transmitted from one generation to another

o   Human made aspects of the environment, including material and subjective elements

o   The way we do things

·         Cultural iceberg metaphors and its limitations

o   Surface culture: what we see

o   Deep culture: what is lived

·         Cultural competence and cultural humility

o   Cultural Competence

§  ability to interact effectively with people of various cultural, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, religious and social groups

§  Involves learning about patterns of behaviour, beliefs, language, values, and customs of particular groups

o   Cultural Humility

§  To understand personal and systemic biases and maintain respectful processes and relationships based on mutual trust

§  Involves acknowledging oneself as a learner when it comes to understanding another’s experience

o   Differences (Competence vs humility):

§  I’m the expert vs you are the expert

§  Is an end product vs is a learning process

§  Objective set of best practices vs subjective set of best practices

·         Moving from cultural competence to cultural humility

o   Appreciation of other peoples’ expertise, and social and cultural context of their lives

o   Reflecting on own beliefs, values and biases, to reveal own culture’s impact on other people

o   Admitting that you don’t know, and are willing to learn from other about their experiences

Week 10 – Cultural Diversity in Practice:

·         Microaggressions: Subtle verbal or nonverbal insults, indignities, or denigrating messages directed towards an individual due to their marginalized identity

o   Mistaking a person of colour for a service worker

o   You don’t act like a normal (race/ethnicity)

·         Systemic racism experienced by Indigenous people

o   Self education and discussions in circles of influence

o   Self-interrogation: How will I show up differently? What actions will I take?

o   Support Indigenous businesses, causes and organizations

o   Sit with discomfort

o   Make space for Indigenous voices

o   Speak up against racism

o   Be a good colleague to Indigenous people

o   Maintain hope