Helping Skills for Working with College Students

Applying Counseling Theory to Student Affairs Practice

Monica Galloway Burke, Jill Duba Sauerheber, Aaron W. Hughey, Karl Laves

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317307297
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

A primary role of student affairs professionals is to help college students dealing with developmental transitions and coping with emotional difficulties. Becoming an effective helping professional requires the complex integration of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and professional awareness, and knowledge. For graduate students preparing to become student affairs practitioners, this textbook provides the skills necessary to facilitate the helping process and understand how to respond to student concerns and crises, including how to make referrals to appropriate campus or community resources. Focusing on counseling concepts and applications essential for effective student affairs practice, this book develops the conceptual frameworks, basic counseling skills, interventions, and techniques that are necessary for student affairs practitioners to be effective, compliant, and ethical in their helping and advising roles. Rich in pedagogical features, this textbook includes questions for reflection, theory to practice exercises, case studies, and examples from the field.

Chapter 1 The Helping Role in Student Affairs

DOI: 10.4324/9781315650531-1

Chances are that sometime within the last few days you helped someone. You engaged in some kind of deliberate interaction in which you provided assistance to someone who believed that the task at hand was difficult to manage or complete alone. Perhaps you helped by doing something, listening, advising, or providing guidance. Maybe you helped by contributing your time or money. It is likely that you did not even think twice about engaging in the help you provided. It may feel just natural to you. As defined by Sheafor, Morales, and Scott (2012), “natural helping is based on a mutual relationship among equals, and the helper draws heavily on intuition and life experience to guide the helping process” (p. 31).

You are reading this book because you are interested in helping others in a professional setting. More specifically, as a student affairs professional, you will be expected to engage in helping skills that are deliberate, appropriate to the setting, and according to the organization’s expectations and rules. The help you provide will be founded upon a disciplined approach; your help will focus on the needs of the person who is being helped, requiring “specific knowledge, values, and skills to guide the helping activity” (Sheafor et al., 2012, p. 31). You will help by facilitating the helpee’s utilization of resources moving toward specific goals (Parsons, 2011). As Cormier and Cormier (1985) suggest, you will be expected to facilitate “the exploration and resolution of issues and problems presented by a helpee” (p. 2). You can do this effectively by incorporating and using the foundational helping skills that counselors and psychotherapists use (Nelson-Jones, 2012, p. 7). Like licensed professional helpers continuously acquire knowledge about potential clientele, it is essential that student affairs professionals do the same.

Caring for Students in Higher Education

Student affairs professionals are part of a long lineage of helpers and guiders within the university system. Since institutions of higher education were formed, they were endowed the same rights and responsibilities as parents for the care of the student, encapsulated in the doctrine of in loco parentis, a Latin phrase translated as “in the place of a parent” (Garner, 2009; Nuss, 1996; Thelin, 2004). Essentially, in the absence of the students’ parents, college authorities were responsible for the students’ physical and moral welfare and training (Gott v. Berea College, 1913), allowing “the institution to exert almost untrammeled authority over students’ lives” (Kaplin & Lee, 2007, p. 16). Student services performed this prescribed care and were expected to “relieve administrators and faculties of problems of discipline” (American Council on Education Studies, 1937, p. 2). In 1937, the Student Personnel Point of View noted that the duties of student services professionals were to engage in “educational counseling, vocational counseling… student health, social programs” as well as a number of other administrative duties (American Council on Education Studies, 1937, pp. 39–40). Expanded in 1949, the revision included a focus on the development of students as well-rounded persons centering on their well-rounded development physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually, as well as intellectually; viewing the student as a responsible participant in his or her own development; and recognizing the individual differences in backgrounds, abilities, and goals (American Council on Education Studies, 1949).

The concept of in loco parentis began to collapse as students began advocating for their rights, including more decision-making power related to their academics and education (Bickel & Lake, 1999). The university administration generally responded by relinquishing its parental role over students and regarding them as young adults entitled to their own rights (Lee, 2011). With these changes, the focus of student affairs administrators shifted from a personnel concentration to a student development orientation. This change was observed by Nevitt Sanford (1968) who posited that college students should be at the center of a college’s activities and go through significant personal growth and development, much of which is influenced by the college environment itself (inside and outside of the classroom), and for growth and personal development to occur, a student needs to have a challenge/support balance.

The Current Chapter in Student Affairs

While the expectations of the student affairs professionals have slightly changed since the 1970s, the issues that they will encounter, assist with, and the environment in which they will do so has increasingly expanded. It has been asserted that today’s generation of college students is more psychologically distressed than previous generations of college attendees (Twenge et al., 2010). In fact, in the article, “Students Under Pressure” (Novotney, 2014), it is noted that students who may not have attended college previously due to mental health issues can now attend thanks to better treatment approaches, new medications, and preventative interventions in high school such as wraparound services and individualized education plans in primary and secondary education. While this is good news, it also infers that institutions need to be prepared to carry on these preventative interventions or maintenance; and the facts support this.

Today, we see that the role of student affairs professionals has changed little from 30 years ago. They are still expected to assist students in balancing the emotional and academic demands of college life, to promote student learning and personal development, and to create a campus environment that is inviting to diverse individuals (Creamer, Winston, & Miller, 2001). They are advisors, mentors, group facilitators, and advocates. Student affairs professionals assist students with academic concerns, relationship issues, work–life balance, identity development, career exploration, depression, anxiety, and other concerns. In his or her respective roles, a student affairs practitioner can focus on something as straightforward as meeting a student’s basic needs (e.g., explanation of a scholarship application process, getting student identification or parking decal, room assignments in residence hall) to facilitating situations that promote student development (e.g., facilitating leadership development activities, conflict resolution with a roommate, academic advising or tutoring), or addressing a student’s emotional and mental well-being (e.g., working with a student expressing suicidal ideations or deep sadness, a student who is experiencing an unexpected family crisis). These responsibilities are often found in functional areas in student affairs and higher education such as financial aid, academic advising, judicial affairs, diversity/multicultural affairs, disability services, international student affairs, adult learner services, campus housing residents, athletics, health and wellness services, and first-generation college student programs.

In summary, a primary role of student affairs professionals is to help college students with a wide range of problems, transitions, concerns, and coping. They are “key agents who support students’ personal and emotional development” as well as “provide important support and validation and contribute to students feeling recognized and included within the campus community” (Higher Education Research Institute, 2014, pp. 2–3). Whether it is a small-scale or large-scale problem or the issue is a continuous, unexpected, or life-altering crisis, students from all walks of life will often need the help of a student affairs professional in multiple ways during college. Consequently, helping skills are essential to effective student affairs practice to address students’ psychological and emotional needs, assist with their developmental transitions and emotional difficulties, and promote students’ personal well-being.

Helping Skills in Student Affairs Practice

Students seek out staff and faculty in times of needs with concerns and dilemmas. Although not professional counselors, students come to them for advice, guidance, coaching, and mentoring. Consider the story of Colleen, a struggling sophomore who is stressed, anxious, experiencing academic difficulty, struggling from a traumatic experience, and seeking understanding.

VOICES FROM THE FIELD

Shared Story: Where Do I Belong?

Colin Cannonier

Colleen, a sophomore, is thousands of miles away from where she grew up in the state of Washington. While her current grade point average is slightly below that of the grade point average of her peers, she appears to possess a sufficiently high IQ which predisposes her to performing well in one of the more challenging undergraduate business courses. She is enrolled at a medium-sized reputable private university where she is hoping to pursue a career in the entertainment and recording music industry. Recently, I have noticed that Colleen has been struggling academically, specifically as it relates to attendance and a number of coursework assignments. She informed me that she has been impacted by a traumatic event. The assault has significant implications extending well beyond the jurisdictions of the university whose resources she is already utilizing. Colleen is cognizant of the need to catch up on material due to missed classes. She described the assault as occurring a few months ago during the middle of final exams. It involves a close friend and as a result of this association, she is conflicted on what and the extent of measures to be taken. To be clear, Colleen had been ignoring the incident for some time, in part with the hope that it might go away, and also it was her hope that her “close friend” would eliminate certain behaviors and actions that led to the assault in the first place. As it turns out, the alleged perpetrator briefly complied but has begun participating in the same activities that led to the assault, even though these behaviors, to her knowledge, have been sanctioned. Further, there is at least one other person with knowledge of the assault and whom Colleen refers to as a friend. This “other friend” has sided with the perpetrator and is of the opinion that Colleen is to blame for the circumstances surrounding the incident. They are no longer on speaking terms.

The stress of all this has triggered her anxiety levels to the point where she spends a consummate amount of time and effort in trying to avoid falling back into certain habits which present another set of harmful issues. Colleen suffers from an eating disorder that she was slowly coming to terms with prior to the physical provocation. Indeed, she was receiving treatment in her first year in college. She has depressive episodes, which in the past she was reluctant to confront as an illness affecting her. Her sleep is often obstructed by flashbacks and she experiences panic attacks around the opposite sex or anyone who predisposes to certain kinds of behaviors, reminiscent of those that led to her being a victim. A variety of physical ailments have become common which include severe stomach aches, anxiety-related tremors or shakes, stress as well as jolts of breathing discomfort. While she is undergoing therapy, including medical care, she finds it a constant challenge to summon the energy to undertake those once-regular activities associated with preparing for classes.

What would you say to Colleen? What would you do to begin the helping process? What would you do to put her at ease and begin the conversation? How would you create a climate that includes genuineness and trust? What will you do to ensure that she feels free to explore her feelings and the presenting conflicts? How do you demonstrate that you are authentic and engaging in active, responsive listening? How do you assess her coping strategies, existence of a support system, and goals? With whom would you consult or refer if needed?

Student issues, such as Colleen’s, can be multifaceted and require basic skills for understanding, support, and wellness. To accomplish tasks and goals related to student success and wellness, student affairs professionals should possess effective helping skills and use these skills when communicating with students. These basic helping skills to assist students in need can be viewed through the structures of Egan’s (2002) three-stage Skilled Helper model.

• Stage I: What’s going on? The goal is to build a trusting relationship, which requires genuineness and empathy, and to help the student explore his or her situation. You help the student to clarify the key issues and work with the student to identify and clarify problems and opportunities as well ...