In What Ways Can Counselling Skills in Youth Work Help a Young Person with the Process of Growing Up - Essay Example

Counselling Skills The process of growing up is not easy for most young people since it involves many changes and pressures and they are not able to readily adapt to the same. The most crucial years with life of a young person are the period between 10 and 19 years of age, called adolescence. The changes that occur during this time can be broadly classified into physical, social and behavioural changes; emotional and cognitive changes. Further, young persons are exposed to many other external pressures and issues that require help to resolve and adapt. Society has recognised the need for such help and devised many models of “help” over time. These models too undergo change as the nature of issues they attempt to address also keep changing. Youth work is a common phrase that accommodates most such activities. On the other hand counselling too has nearly identical aims, which are however not always directed at young persons alone. There are both similarities and differences between youth work and counselling. Counselling is a very highly developed area and counsellors are usually skilled professionals who adopt specific methods of work to resolve individual problems. Many of the skills that counsellors use are also very useful in youth work. The process of growing up The body of a growing young person undergoes several changes. They have many questions about these changes which remain unanswered, and most of them find it difficult to talk about these changes or seek clarifications openly. Friends, movies, magazines and imagination often provide incomplete and maybe even wrong answers to such questions. Boys and girls grow into young men and women during a short period of two or three years, experiencing a growth spurt. Height and weight increase during this period which starts earlier among girls, but lasts longer in boys. Changes occur in facial features, muscle tissue increases and girls gain width in hip area. Major changes take place in the reproductive organs and secondary sex characteristics like voice and hair growth, and the effects of hormonal changes become apparent. Behaviours, interests and preoccupations too change, and often these changes are bewildering to the young persons as they are unable to adjust to the same. Emotional changes triggered by new hormonal activity causes wide mood swings, and biological sex drives intensify. Infatuations and most critically, sexual and drug experimentations are often encountered at this stage. The young person feels the need to be accepted by peers, and to be independent, neither a child nor an adult. Behaviour undergoes modification accordingly and often leads to undesirable directions if they don’t receive necessary help to cope with the situations. Adolescents also undergo cognitive changes that are very powerful influences on their future. They develop the ability to think systematically, and often in abstract ways. Creativity and experimentation come to the fore and they are able to build and sustain relationships. They are often at odds with adults and express their differences through their own vocabulary. Consciousness about their bodies and the idea of beauty also intensify, with many attendant pitfalls. Substance abuse, crime and violence, unemployment, and homelessness are some of the other issues they need to tackle during this period. Diversity of cultures, ethnic and linguistic differences found in many communities add to the complexities of the process of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Society expects adolescents to develop capabilities that will allow them to assimilate themselves seamlessly into the adult world. To be considered grown up, they must be responsible, by taking care of their own affairs and keeping commitments. They must be answerable for their own actions and be trustworthy. They are expected to make the right choices, with self respect and to the satisfaction of their own consciences. Ethical issues and dilemmas have to be resolved, and goals set and achieved. All of these are much more easily achieved with help and guidance that society provides through youth work. The persons providing these services need a wide variety of skills to make their work meaningful and effective. Many of these skills are found in common with counselling, depending on the actual situation. An examination of the various models of youth work will help identify the skills that workers need in order to be successful. “Youth work” is a term that encompasses a wide variety of activities, some in sharp contrast to others. These activities among youth emerged over time and developed methods became necessary to address specific issues. The earliest form of “youth work” is considered to be the activities of Sunday Schools, attached to churches, that came into existence in the eighteenth century. They had informal working methods and included team sports and day trips as part of their activities. Later, in the nineteenth century, volunteers began to run “ragged schools” aimed at poor children and youth who could not avail of formal education. They worked very informally in any available place, even in stables and abandoned houses. 1844 witnessed the formation of the first ever youth organization, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), one that survives to this day. Most of these early forms of youth work were run by Christian activists, and had diverse objectives, causing occasional conflicts among them. The consciousness of “youth” as a separate category that deserved attention, and theories of adolescence emerged in this period. The 1850s witnessed the establishment of the first youth’s institutes and clubs in Britain, which specifically recognized that youth had special wants and faced special dangers, calling for the intervention of helping agencies. These institutes sought to provide recreation, entertainment, healthy reading material and guidance, in order to keep them away from the dangers of the street. Most early youth work concentrated on young men, and were run by Christian organizations but by the late nineteenth century, the first girls club came into existence. As mew areas of challenges emerged, there was a shift away from traditional religious settings towards accommodating social issues, particularly the exploitation of young women at work. Uniformed youth groups too came into existence around this period, again pioneered by Christian activists. Drills, instruction and other activities as diverse as music, camping and learning first aid were introduced in these groups. Robert Baden-Powell was one of the first to suggest that formal religion and drill suppressed creativity. He also realized the importance of adventure, physical fitness and team work, which resulted in the formation of the Scouts movement and later the Guides, meant for girls, during the first decade of the twentieth century. These movements acquired mass proportions and gained popularity. Many such institutions function even today in many parts of the world. State involvement in youth work was minimal till the Second World War, during which attempts were initiated to organize youth using new and innovative ideas. Detached youth work was a new form of youth work that came into being during this period. The Albemarle Report of 1960 set the stage for the establishment of large youth clubs and centres, with government support. The role of youth clubs gradually declined with increasing entertainment options in homes made possible through satellite and cable TV, video and computers. In the 1980s and 90s, youth work descended in spending priorities, coupled with a decline in the number of youth. Detached work and projects took the place of club house or building based activities. These were to a large extent influenced by work among street gangs in the US. New ways of contacting “hard to reach” groups and individuals who were not willing to take on even the slight commitment to club membership, prompted workers to go where the youth congregated, like street corners. However, detached work has moved towards working with individuals and case based activities, at the cost of voluntarism and teamwork. Even geographical boundaries have given way to issues, creating greater need for counselling skills and practices. The practice of youth work has taken many forms, but some common threads run through them all. Some of these are: A focus on a specific age group, the emphasis on voluntary participation and relationships, team work, informal settings, importance given to education and welfare, and stress on integrity. Opening up avenues of communication channels assumes critical importance in such a scenario, a point of congruity with counselling. These elements have even prompted youth work to be considered a form of informal education. This move has created a need for workers to involve themselves in formal teaching and tutoring, and move towards casework and advisory activities. Thus the points of congruity between youth work and counselling are on the rise and skills for both are not mutually exclusive. (http://www.infed.org/youthwork/b-yw.htm) (http://www.infed.org/youthwork/b-detyw.htm) Youth work involves many ethical dilemmas – whether to control or empower- whether to respect the individual choice or the public good etc. An incident reported in the book Ethical Issues in Youth Work By Sarah Banks illustrates the impact of the dilemmas that youth workers face. “While out on a trip with a group of young people, a youth worker saw one of the participants, a young woman, stealing sweets from a shop. Nobody else seemed to have noticed it. The young woman had recently returned to the youth club after a long absence and her behaviour was often challenging. The worker felt she was just beginning to develop a relationship of trust with the young woman, and therefore decided not to mention the theft. Afterwards, the worker wondered if she had done the right thing, knowing that: “by not mentioning the incident, I was condoning the theft and passing on the notion that it was acceptable”. The book goes on to explore “principle based” and “virtue based” approaches to ethics in youth work. The former focuses on values and principles underlying youth work such as respect for the individual, while the latter stresses the importance of honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. Whichever be the approach, it is apparent that resolution of the dilemmas involves the use of a variety of skills on the part of the youth worker, among which are several that counsellors are specifically trained in the controlling aspects of youth work are however contradictory to the basic principles of counselling and in this respect, there cannot be much in common between the two. Ethical Issues in Youth Work By Sarah. Banks (2005) Routledge Youth development professionals or youth workers help young persons develop the skills and competencies necessary for success in their communities and empowerment is an effective strategy used for this purpose. Empowerment in youth development denotes self actualization, but not the forsaking of guidance and control to the youth involved. Empowerment is a process that takes time and involves sharing of responsibility and power between adults and young persons. It nurtures self esteem, an important success factor in counselling. Any counselling skills that promote self esteem will naturally help in youth work too. Empowerment succeeds when information is shared, creating a feeling of trust, as reported by a Teen Centre Director. "Through a panel discussion with teens about their Teen Centre one director discovered that teens were not attending dances because they thought the entrance fee was too high. With the intent to educate the teens on why the admission price was set at $4.00, the director showed them his budget for dances. He patiently went through each category of expenses with the teens and asked them what they would do differently. The teens noticed that a large part of the budget was being spent on food. They pointed out that only about 10% of the teens eat the food that 100% of them were paying for. They suggested spending less on food so the admission price would be lower. The director commented that their solution was one he would never have considered! Admission prices went down and participation went up." (Huebner, 1998) Empowerment also needs the establishment of clear boundaries within which youth have to operate and does not mean giving them a carte blanche to act they feel. The limits of freedom must be explained in advance if empowerment is to succeed. This process of setting boundaries and limits will be smoother if the youth worker is familiar with the use of counselling skills. By increasingly playing the role of a facilitator during the process of empowerment, youth workers assume roles that resemble that of counsellors, again stressing the importance of counselling skills in youth work. The youth worker also needs to play the role of a coach, practicing role plays, offering support and help, more in the nature of counselling. Empowerment is again the basic theme of Egans skilled helper model, described in his book (Egan, 2000). The three stage model suggested by him involves the current scenario, the preferred scenario and action strategies to answer three questions: 1. What is going on? 2. What do I want instead? 3. How might I get to what I want? The model aims at helping people to manage their problems in living more effectively and develop unused opportunities more fully, and to help people become better at helping themselves in their everyday lives. Empathy and good active listening are given particular importance in the model, skills that are of paramount importance in counselling as well. The first stage provides for self expression and understanding, safely and fully with hope and vision of greater opportunities. The second stage clarifies the actual needs of the person for personal betterment and is a stage of hope and energy. The third stage deals with the actual process of moving towards identified goals, taking into account all available help and hindrances. Egan specifically mentions the following skills that are involved at various stages of the three stage model by a skilled helper: 1. “Active listening, reflecting, paraphrasing, checking understanding, open questions, summarising.” 2. “Challenging; different perspectives, patterns and connections, shoulds and oughts, negative self-talk, blind spots (discrepancies, distortions, incomplete awareness, things implied, whats not said), ownership, specifics, strengths”. 3. “Facilitating focusing and prioritising an area to work on.” 4. “Brainstorming, facilitating imaginative thinking” 5. “Facilitating selecting and reality checking with respect to internal and external landscape” 6. “Facilitation of exploring costs and benefits, and checking commitment to goal” 7. “Facilitation of brainstorming” 8. “Facilitation of selecting and reality checking” 9. “Facilitation of action planning” (http://www.gp-training.net/training/mentoring/egan.htm) It is quite evident that most of these skills are specialised skills, usually available only through training. Almost all these skills are apart of the skills counsellors are trained in and hence Egan’s three stage model reiterates the use of counselling skills in helping activities. A youth worker needs to have a wide variety of skills. Some of them are: An ability to establish relationships and trust Excellent communication skills, including listening skills of the highest order Maturity and sensitivity in combination with resiliency, initiative and enthusiasm An interest in areas of interest to adolescents, such as sports, arts and the latest technology Possession of good organization and planning skills Many of these skills are also those required in counselling practice. Trust also implies confidentiality, a crucial element of counselling too. They attempt to understand the realities associated with the young people they work with, support and encourage them to adopt suitable responses to challenges. Promoting team work is an integral part of youth work and the ability of the worker to work with groups is an important success factor. The worker needs to draw out the educational elements of experiences encountered during all activities. Counselling is a form of helping in which establishment of interpersonal communications is critical. Counsellors are trained in effective communication skills, which are equally important in youth work. Counselling is not age specific though individual counsellors may prefer to work with specific age groups. Counsellors need to acquire specific skills that will allow them to participate in youth work, telephone helpline activities, providing advice etc. Counselling usually takes place in private and is confidential. This is one aspect in which it differs from youth work. Another difference is that counselling is usually for individuals, while youth work targets groups. However, the boundary lines in this respect are now blurring. Counsellors need to build trust and make them accepted and respected by the people they counsel, helping the counselled make their own decisions. Trust and respect and the skills required to build them are crucial in both youth work and counselling. An important difference between youth work and counselling is that counsellors are not supposed to give advice – they point out options and consequences and the final choice is entirely that of the person counselled. Counsellors are also trained in recognising common emotional disorders and are knowledgeable enough to be able to talk to people who those who need to discuss these issues. Youth workers need the use of counselling skills when faced with situations concerning young people that require state intervention. Counselling skills would permit the worker to discuss the problem and involve the person in making an informed decision. Counselling skills have some important elements such as: The ability to use of communication skills effectively and positively Active listening skills and the ability to establish effective two way communications Goal setting Knowledge of group dynamics A helping nature Knowledge to suggest alternatives and directions Many of these are also important in the practice of youth work. Counselling often takes a directive nature, where the counsellor tells the adolescent what to do, something that goes against the very basics of counselling, but approaches youth work. Counselling skills include very specific micro skills in the area of communications, especially effective and active listening skills that demonstrate that the counsellor is interested and attentive. Many of these skills are practised unconsciously, from body language to questioning. Body language skills include posture, gestures and encouraging mannerisms. Counselling skills also include setting a scene of professionalism in meetings, something that would help youth workers in many situations where they have to shed their informality. The use of appropriate eye contact, respect for personal space are components of communication skills learnt by counselling professionals that will help youth workers establish effective interpersonal communications with individuals and groups. Verbal communications skills also help in the same manner. (WHO Guide, 2001) Among the many categories of workers who can benefit from the use of counselling skills, are social workers, voluntary counsellors and workers engaged in helping activities. They may not hold professional qualifications, but use counselling skills as part of their work in clubs, church related activities and even such diverse areas as nursing, and professional services in law, funerals and trade unions. Student counsellors who also double as youth workers giving guidance and helping adolescents make career choices and engage in group activities are particularly in need of counselling skills. Many helpers and paraprofessionals like nurses take on counselling roles within restricted working environments and they are very much in need of counselling skills to succeed in their helping work. Examples include social workers, who take counselling skills courses to help them work more effectively among distressed individuals and families and pregnancy advisory services that use counselling skills to discuss sensitive topics like contraception. Community and youth workers who work among minorities, priests who work in church sponsored youth and family programmes, and peer helpers who help each other in similar situations, all find counselling skills useful in being effective in their functions. Goals and settings differ in the work of counsellors and helpers, but the skills used often overlap. Counsellors and helpers use counselling skills to achieve many identical goals, such as: Supportive listening goal – to make the client believe that he or she is being understood and put them at ease. Goal of managing a specific situation – rather than a general problem Goal of managing problems that go beyond specific situations. Goal of altering poor skills that creates problems, often repetitively, as for example poor public speaking skills. Goal of creating changes in philosophy of life or reaching a state of self actualization. (Nelson-Jones, 2001) Counselling also involves a considerable extent of psychological analysis and is conducted in settings that resemble a clinic or exude an ambience of therapy. Youth work stresses the informal aspects of interaction between worker and adolescent, particularly in detached youth work which takes place in highly informal locations and situations such as street corners, coffee bars and gang hangouts. Youth work also involves outreach activities, while counselling is usually sought out. Counsellors also involve themselves with the feelings and problems of others, but need to take care that they are not burdened with them. Statistics reveal that almost 70% of counsellors are female, and most often taken up as second career. (http://www.nextstepwestyorkshire.org.uk/documents/lmi_counsellingmini.pdf) As youth work takes on more characteristics of detached work, it runs parallel to counselling in many respects and skills also merge in many spheres. Moreover, youth work is becoming more and more issue and case based and youth workers are even reporting “case loads”, a far cry from the traditional concepts of youth work as a helping activity aimed at groups rather than individuals. Thus the skills required of youth workers have also undergone changes and more counselling skills are called for. Some counselling professionals go even as far as referring to youth and social workers as untrained counsellors, which is again an extreme form of exclusion. On the other hand, counsellors are often called upon to give advice and directions, a function considered to be that of youth workers. Thus there is an overlap in functions, resulting in a natural overlap of skills. More important perhaps is the need for youth workers to possess some specific counselling skills for increased effectiveness in helping young persons with the process of growing up. Counselling is highly individualized and focuses on specific issues such as marital issues, drug related problems, employment and career oriented fields, and many others. Each of these requires specialized knowledge and training apart from generic skills common to all counselling activities. These specialized skills are not usually relevant to youth work, while the family of generic skills utilized by counsellors will be useful to youth workers in helping adolescents meet the requirements of growing up. This does not imply that youth work requires only a subset of skills that counsellors require to have. Youth workers too need to possess specialized skills that counsellors do not usually utilize in their work. Working in groups and teams and organizing events and programs are usual components of a youth worker’s job, which counsellors do not take up. These require special skills that youth workers need to have in addition to the skills they need to possess in common with counsellors. Works cited Youth work an introduction: http://www.infed.org/youthwork/b-yw.htm (accessed January 20, 2007). Detached, street-based and project work with young people: http://www.infed.org/youthwork/b-detyw.htm (accessed January 19, 2007). Banks, Sarah 2005. Ethical Issues in Youth Work. Routledge Huebner, Angela.J. 1998. Examining "Empowerment": A How-To Guide for the Youth Development Professional Journal of Extension, Volume 36 Number 6. Egan, G. 2000. The Skilled Helper: Brookes & Cole. Egans skilled helper model: http://www.gp-training.net/training/mentoring/egan.htm (accessed January 20, 2007). Counselling skills training in adolescent sexuality and reproductive health Adolescent Health Programme. Division of Family Health-World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2001, A Facilitator’s Guide Nelson-Jones, R.2001. Introduction to Counselling Skills. Sage Outlook on counselling: quick facts: http://www.nextstepwestyorkshire.org.uk/documents/lmi_counsellingmini.pdf (accessed January 20, 2007). Read More