1
Chapter 2. The Helping Relationship
CHAPTER REVIEW
With a focus on the significance of communication, Chapter 2 explores the nature and
characteristics of effective helping relationships. This provides a foundation for the subsequent
chapters in which the knowledge about and practice of helping skills and theoretical frameworks
are discussed.
How well one understands oneself influences how well one can understand others.
Research indicates that helping relationships are enhanced by certain traits and characteristics of
helpers, including: self-awareness of gender and cultural biases, beliefs, behaviors, and feelings;
MAJOR TEACHING OBJECTIVES
1. To help students learn about helpful and non-helpful traits, characteristics, and verbal and
ADDITIONAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Discuss with students the issues involved with answering personal questions that clients ask
them. What is the difference between being dishonest and maintaining privacy? Discuss
2. Ask students what personal issues they have which might get in the way of their being
effective counselors. For example, for undergraduate students, who are often seniors, having
3. Have students discuss what they think are the necessary characteristics of an effective
4. In the case of Anya, the Russian immigrant on pages 41-42 of the textbook, have students
COMMENTS ON EXERCISES IN THE BOOK
The exercises in this chapter are designed to give students the opportunity to experience helpful
and unhelpful behaviors and responses, as well as to observe nonverbal behaviors in different
contexts. For exercise 2.2, you must provide crayons, drawing sheets, and blindfolds.
The scenarios provided in exercises 2.4 to 2.8 can be done at home or in class. There are
INTERNET ACTIVITIES
1. Have students search the term “psychotherapy effectiveness” on the Internet. What did they
find?
BOOKS AND FILMS THAT MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR THIS CHAPTER
1. Have students watch popular movies such as: Ordinary People; What about Bob?; Analyze
This; Mumford; Girl, Interrupted; Prince of Tides; Prime; Antwone Fisher; A Dangerous
Method; and Good Will Hunting. What do they think about the process of therapy and the
2. Have students watch an episode or two of the television show The Sopranos and discuss the
3. Have students watch several episodes of the television series In Treatment. Have them
4. Have students watch an episode of Dr. Phil. What type of relationship does he form with the
5. Suggest that students read The Dancing Healers: A Doctor’s Journey of Healing with Native
3
Madness by Elyn R. Saks (Hyperiorn, 2007) to understand more about cultural differences in
the healing process.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The purpose of a helping relationship is to:
2. Formal relationships differ from informal relationships because in the formal relationship:
3. The primary difference between helpers and helpees are:
4. Which of the following does empathy not include?:
5. All of the following are true of personal values except:
6. Congruent counselors are:
7. What are some of the areas that professional helpers need knowledge in?
8. Helpful verbal behaviors include all of the following except:
9. The case of the girls with suspected homosexual tendencies exemplifies:
10. Western models of psychotherapy are based on:
11. Increased experience as a helper contributes to:
12. Ethical integrity:
13. Which of the following best describes the helping process?:
14. Culturally sensitive helpers:
15. In which of these ways can therapists avoid difficult topics?:
16. A safeguard against controlling the communication process is:
17. A danger of the problem-oriented approach is:
18. Psychoanalytic approaches:
ESSAY QUESTIONS
2. Explain the following statement and give examples: “The helping relationship is embedded
5. Give three examples of helpful and three examples of unhelpful verbal responses.
6. Give three examples of helpful and three examples of unhelpful nonverbal responses.
9. In what ways are self-aware helpers more likely than unaware helpers to be effective as
10. How does knowledge (such as about social, political, and economic dimensions) enhance the
11. What strategies might a helper use who wants to be liked (fears being disliked) by his/her
14. Provide examples of possible ethical dilemmas that might face a helper with ethical integrity.