Therapeutic Relationships

What:

Individuals with developmental disabilities are all unique; their behavior and communication styles are diverse.  Therefore, persons who work with individuals with developmental disabilities must adapt their approach and working style to meet the unique needs of each individual.  Situational counseling is one approach that has been suggested to be an effective way to work with individuals with developmental disabilities, particularly for those staff in direct care positions. Since direct care staff intervene more often with persons with developmental disabilities than do professionals, the ability to work therapeutically with these individuals should be taught to them.

Why:

In the broadest sense, situational counseling can be defined as counseling techniques that are tailored to meet the needs of an individual in a particular situation.  The challenge with situational counseling is that there is no standard formula to follow.  However, the concept of situational counseling offers general guidelines that will assist staff in building a more positive and productive relationship with their clients within different contexts. First and foremost, direct care staff need to understand the individual's likes, dislikes, behavior patterns, personality, communication style, and interpersonal skills.  This in conjunction with situational counseling will assist direct care staff to work more effectively with a diverse group of individuals in different settings.

How:

Situational counseling consists of a number of different concepts and skills. These skills should be taught to direct care staff in training sessions before working with individuals with developmental disabilities and trainings can continually be provided throughout their work experience to increase their knowledge base. It is suggested these trainings consist of teaching main skills that can be understood so direct care staff can work with individuals with developmental disabilities effectively and it is also important for these staff to gain awareness about how their interactions can have an affect on the progress of persons with developmental disabilities.