Introduction
The process of skilled helping is a structured process in which the helper and the helping technique should interact and operate with the subjects to ensure that the resultant help is most effective in its approach. Gerard Egan offered the 3-stage model for aiding the helpers in solving problems and seeking newer opportunities in the field of skilled help or counseling services. The prime objective of the model was to enable people for living more effectively and make more efficient use of most of the available opportunity around them to get the maximum yielding results (Shorrock, 2011). The model has been developed by augmenting the structured interaction and analytical insights on the conventional problem-solving approach based on information gathering, analysis of assimilated information, and making a choice from the available options (Beven, 2011). The Egan’s skilled helper model comprises of the three stages which analyze the current situation, the preferred situation and the futuristic plan to solve the undertaken problem.
This essay aims at summarizing the 3 stages of the Egan’s Skilled Helper Model and exploring the relative contribution of each of the 3 stages in the actual problem-solving process.
The Skilled helper model by Egan
The process of helping a client must have the essential qualities of an adaptive process which implies that the helping model must be flexible in adapting with a wide range of problems, humanistic in developing a cognitive stance towards the problem undertaken, broadly-based to ensure wide scope of solutions, and an opportunity utilizing framework for analyzing the maximum utilization of all the available options (Egan, 2013). So Egan came upon with the 4 primary questions that can be crucial for the skilled helpers in determining the overall solution to the objective of problem-solving by using skilled a helping. These 4 important questions are as follows (Egan, 2013):
What all things are going on in the present scenario? This question helps in clarifying the nature of problem, client’s issues and concerns, and potential opportunities that can be worked upon to come to a desired solution to the problem. This question is the summary of the client’s current picture and the actual situation.
What changes are expected by the client? This question gives a clearer picture of the desired results by the client and also helps in ascertaining the objectives for the problem. This question is the summary of the client’s preferred picture and the desired situation.
How to reach the desired result? This question helps in exploring the possible ways and analyzing their respective outcomes in deciding the possible solution for getting the desired result. This develops the action plan for matching the client’s needs.
How it has to be done to get the desired result? This question forms the crux of the entire skilled helping process as it gives a framework of the various processes that constitute the client’s action plan and also an evaluative model for affirming their outcomes. There has to be an Action Arrow which helps in clarifying the specific actions which the client must undergo to get his desired picture.
The four questions discussed above are formulated into a three staged framework of the Skilled Helper model. The model is made up of the three logical stages and an action arrow, which can be described as follows:
Stage 1- The current scenario – Explores the question, “What is here?”
Stage 2- The preferred scenario – Identifies the question, “What do I need here?”
Stage 3- The way forward – Analyzes the question, “How do I get what I need here? ”
The psychological approach behind this analytical model is to ensure that all the facets of the expected result from the client and all the untapped opportunities are well integrated to develop a problem management framework that develops the final solution (Beven, 2011). Each of the three stages of this Skilled Helping model will be analyzed in detail in the coming sections of the essay.
Stage I: The current picture (Exploring skills for existing situation)
The stage I of the Egan’s helping model adopt a client-centric approach by adopting the effective skills of interactive counseling to have a thorough understanding of the client’s existing situation. The primary objective of this stage is to understand the client’s problem and also develop a pool of the untapped opportunities and choices given to him for handling the current issues (Ellwood, 2009). The role of the helper is to match with the psychological stance of the client regarding the problem and then to aid him in realizing the various resources and their probable solutions that can ease the problem-solving process as a whole (Egan, 2013).
There are few essential psychological components of the helper’s behavior which ease the process discussed in this stage and they involve a set of open-ended questions, focused approach towards client’s issues, empathy for the current issues faced by the client, and effective structuring, paraphrasing and summarizing skills (Newnham, Morrow & Irwin, 2010). The overall approach employed by the helper in stage I can be further divided into 3 main tasks, they are as follows:
Helping the client to narrate his story- The counseling skills are utilized in this task where the effective use of some the above-mentioned skills like open-ended questions, focused approach towards client’s issues, empathy for the current issues faced by the client are utilized by the helper to ensure that the client is fully expressive in narrating the problem. The client should be so convinced by seeing the communication skills of the helper and should be ultimately comfortable to discuss all the aspects of the problem he is undergoing.
Helping the client in recognizing the real story- After the initial narration, the helper must effectively trace the observed issues in the first narration and then put them back to the client to seek his clarifications. This task aims at pinpointing the existing loopholes, blind spots, and chances of reviewing the problem by a new viewpoint. The skills of effective listening, structuring, paraphrasing, and summarizing are required for successful execution of this stage.
Helping the client in coming up with his version of the right story- The helper should aid the client in rethinking, reviewing, and revisiting those issues which can be worked upon to bring the desired solution and also add value to his life. This task requires the helper to leverage the entire knowledge of the client regarding the various facets of his current problem and the possible ways of getting the right picture. The skills required for this task are exclusively analytical in nature and they tend to extract that hidden information of desired ways to produce the optimum solution which the client himself is not able to visualize.
Thus, the stage I can be concluded to have all the necessary work done in terms of some specific process like gaining insight from the client regarding the current scenario of his problem, taking a note of the possible options and underlying opportunities in the client’s review of the current situation, and developing the ideal solution image from the client’s awareness and expectations regarding the exact nature of his problem (Egan, 2013).
Stage 2: The preferred picture (Gathering client’s insight on the desired solution)
The prime objective of this stage is to aid the client in developing an elaborate and objective understanding of the current problem and situation. The stage is executed by the focused acts of the helper who specifically pushes the client towards exploring all the possible options and ways to solve the problem. At the same time, the skilled helper is also furnished with a responsibility of sifting through the suggested ways and choosing those options that can be empirically justified, persistent in their impact, realistic in attainment, and accompanied by adequate result –oriented incentives(Egan, 2013).
The main skills required by the helper in this context are those of ability to recognize patterns, divergent thinking, reflexive brainstorming, cause-effect balancing approach, and adequate timing (pacing) of recommending alternatives. The above-mentioned skills must be applied to facilitate the client in managing with the possible ways of handling the situation and simultaneously attaining the desired goals of the preferred picture. The skilled helper should undergo these techniques to ensure that all the possible ways to handle the situation are well analyzed by the client and whether there has been an effective value oriented tradeoff is recognized between the facilitating factors and the hindering factors (Riggal, 2011).
In terms of the counseling-based approach of the skilled helper, this stage can be divided into three main tasks which are discussed below:
Assuring the client for existing possibilities of a better future- This task involves using the optimism a positive hope in the client that his current situation can definitely be resolved if all the possibilities are explored and analyzed rigorously. The skills of brainstorming and creative thinking are jointly used in this endeavor and the client is psychologically aligned to the helping process. Thus, this task drags the client towards using his creative cells to enlist all the possibilities for resolving the current situation and prevents him from being judgmental about the process of helping and its possible impact.
Helping the client to be decisive in moving from all possibilities to definite choices- This task is actually focused on changing the agenda of the counseling process from exploring the possibilities to ascertaining definite choices on the basis of analyzing the probable outcome and results. The skills used in this regard are those of recognizing patterns, divergent thinking, and reflexive brainstorming which should help the client in getting definite choices of the action plan. The resultant choices should be ‘SMART’ in their application.
Ensuring a commitment from the client towards the set goals- This task drives the client towards accepting and embracing his goals for the desired solution. The counselor needs to convince the client regarding the fact that the finalized goals are most appropriate for the client and they are his own choice for a better future. The skills of appositive convincing power and perfect pacing of recommendation are very important for successful execution of this task.
Hence, it can be concluded that stage 2 involves all those crucial tasks that need to gather enough insights from the client regarding how his preferred situation has to be achieved.
Stage 3: Planning the way forward (Developing action plan for the required goal)
This stage involves the important actions of the helper where he assists the client to take most adequate actions with respect to the earlier defined goals and aids in adopting the perfect problem-solving approaches by providing appropriate guidance and motivation (Egan, 2013). This stage has the long-term impact on the client’s ability to handle not only his current issues but also the forthcoming problems that can enable more efficient functioning in the future prospects. This stage is practically the summation of the earlier stages to form the action plan that yields in terms of rendering the skilled help on resolving the focused issues via suggested action plan.
The main skills required in the helper for this stage are those of goal setting, decision making, problem-solving, knowledge of the Balance- sheet method, and psychological knowledge of how the behaviors are changed and further sustained. The skilled helper ensures that the client achieves his goals and actually helps the client in moving from the current situation (discussed in Stage I) to the preferred situation (discussed in Stage II). The necessary tasks required in this stage are as follows:
Help the client in developing feasible strategies for attaining their goals- The client is encouraged to develop viable action plans and solution-oriented strategies to resolve the current issues. The helper motivates and encourages this process by reminding the client about underlying possibilities of an alternative strategy that could be more viable than the existing ones. The skills used in this regard are those of goal setting, decision making, and problem solving which aid the client in developing adequate strategies.
Help the client in finalizing the best-fit strategy – There might be a number of strategies identified by the client as per the result of Task 1. However, not all of those strategies might be the best fit for the client’s current situation. Hence, the helper needs to assist the client in choosing the most appropriate strategy by evaluating all the pros and cons regarding each of them. The skill of applying the Balance-sheet method for each strategy is applicable here as each strategy is to be analyzed on the basis of its impact and the relative cause which it resolves.
Help the client in devising viable actions plan for the chosen best-fit strategy- This task is about conducting the goal-setting for the client to ensure that the notion of adopting a constructive change gets imbibed in his basic behavioral pattern. The client is facilitated with those action plans which can not only change his current situation to the desired one but also gets affirmed in his management style for creating long-term impact. The psychological knowledge of how the behaviors are changed and further sustained is the key skill in this case.
Thus, it can be concluded that the third stage of the skilled helping model actually derives its execution from the successful run of the first two stages and finally attains the desired goals for the client.
Conclusion
The essay has given practical insights for summarizing the 3 stages of the Egan’s Skilled Helper Model and exploring the relative contribution of each of the 3 stages in the actual problem-solving process. Apart from these three stages, the evaluation of the successful execution of each of them is also a very important phase of the overall skilled helping process model given by Egan (Fear, 2014). Lastly, it can be concluded that the Gerard Egan’s model of the skilled helper is definitely fruitful in almost all sorts of the practical problems solving in personal and professional lives.
References
Beven, P. (2011). The Egan "Skilled Helper" Model in Guidance and Counseling Practice. Guidance and Counseling matters. Retrieved online from http://www.careerguidanceandcounselling.com/the-egan-skilled-helper-model/.
Egan, G. (2013). The Skilled Helper: A Problem-Management and Opportunity-Development Approach to helping. 10th Ed. Australia, Cengage Learning: 215-374. Print.
Ellwood, F.(2009). Could you be a mentor? Vital Journal,7(1), 40-41. Retrieved online fromhttp://www.nature.com/vital/journal/v7/n1/full/vital1095.html
Fear,W. (2014).Using Gerard Egan’s model in an Occupational setting. Retrieved online from http://william-fear.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Gerard-Egans-Model-in-an-Occupational-Setting.pdf.
Newnham, C., Morrow, D. & Irwin. J.D.(2010).Motivational Coaching: A Functional Juxtaposition of Three Methods for Health Behavior Change: Motivational Interviewing, Coaching, and Skilled Helping. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 8( 2), 29-33.
Riggal, Sally. (2011).Social work students’ experiences of using the Egan Skilled Helper model. Journal of Practice Teaching & Learning,11(1), 37-53.
Shorrock, M.(2011). The philosophical challenges within counseling psychology: Can Egan’s Model help? Counseling Psychology Review, 26 (3), 65-67.
