Lesson 12: Influencing Skills and Strategies


Attention

There are a great many factors and forces that influence us every day...

Family
Friends
Economy
Culture
Media

As counselors we have the opportunity to be influential as well...to be a positive force for change and thought.


Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Identify the six major skills that you can use to influence people
  • Identify specific personal challenges associated with these skills in your own practice
  • Identify specific personal strengths associated with these skills in your own practice
  • Identify ways in which you might engage in personal growth in order to better these skills in your own practice

Teaching

Influence and Change

The process of influencing someone and helping them change builds on the counseling process we have discussed so far:

  1. Story
  2. Positive assets
  3. Re-story
  4. Action

They won't care what you know until they know that you care

Fundamentally is is STILL all about building the trusting relationship!

Moderating Triad

These three skills are the keys toward building relationship, showing interest, and ultimately influencing people:

  • Open questions
  • Closed questions
  • Focusing

Please note that this list does not contain any of the advanced skills!!

Therapeutic Use of Self

Carl Rogers introduced the concept of using the "self" as role model, active interested party, personality, etc as a key aspect of the therapeutic relationship.

  • Empathy
  • Sensitivity
  • Respect
  • Warmth
  • Genuineness
  • Self disclosure
  • Specificity
  • Immediacy

Influencing Skills

These particular skills are useful in accessing your own story and experiences and bringing them into the counseling session. As you can tell, these, as all skills, need to be intentional and not all skills are "good" for all clients and not all counselors are good at using all the skills!

  • Interpretation and reframing
  • Logical consequences
  • Self disclosure
  • Feedback
  • Information / Advice / Opinion / Instruction / Suggestion
  • Directives

Click HERE to review a PDF presentation on Influencing Skills by Dr. Wendy St. Pierre. You will need to save it to your iPad.


Assessment

Lesson 12 Quiz

Consider each of the six influencing skills associated with this unit. Identify one that you consider you may have a particular problem or struggle using and post a discussion topic related to the following questions:

  1. Which skill are you going to be discussing here?
  2. What is it about this skill that is particularly challenging or do you think presents particular challenges? Why?
  3. What do you think you can do, in terms of personal growth, to better your chances of using this skill effectively?

Lesson 12 Discussion

Consider the same list of influencing skills from the Lesson. Describe a skill that you think you will be particularly good at and present a story that exemplifies your skill.