Cycle Of Helping

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A therapist is in the business of helping people. They do this out of their interest in the human service field. Perhaps something in their life prompted them to take action out of an injustice that they experiences or a need they believed wasn’t being met. Whatever the reason they realized that helping people was their passion and one they intended to make their life’s work. When you are working with people there will always be the possibility of blurring the line between a professional helping relationship and social friendship. This is when a therapist knowledge, skills and values help them to prevent this very scenario from happening. Knowledge, interviewing and the cycle of caring A therapist must have an in-depth understanding of “various…show more content…
25). A therapist will also explain “the exceptions to those rights and explain when under certain circumstances that the therapist would be obligated by law to report what the client has told him” (Nugent & jones, pg. 28-31). Although the client will be sharing very intimate details of their life, the therapist must keep that knowledge in the context of helping the client solve their problems. Even though a therapist’s job is to “convey empathy, genuineness while using listening and attending skills they have a task to complete” (Nugent & jones, pg. 40-41). This process is the beginning of the professional helping relationship so how does a counselor deal with a client who is having trouble seeing the distinction between that helping relationship and a social…show more content…
135). This closeness can blur the lines between the professional helping relationship and what the client views as a friendship. As a counselor tries to maintain that separation a client experiences “transference, this is a process that causes clients to transfer their negative feeling towards their counselor that they feel toward significant others in their life” (Nugent & Jones, pg. 136). If a counselor isn’t aware of this and redirects the client, this could lead to the client having feelings toward the counselor that extend beyond the professional helping relationship. A client could develop feelings of attachment and caring toward the counselor because “they feel safe in their relationship as opposed to their own unstable ones they had in the past” (Nugent & Jones, pg.

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