Students will be required to complete a final integrative paper (6-10 pages) based on their experiences in the two in-person helping sessions with their helpee this semester. This paper should assess your unique understanding, integration, and application of peer helping skills. Components of the final paper are included below and should be identified by headings:
Case Write-Up (1-2 pages): Write a brief “case summary” section based on your two helping sessions as the helper. Outline and summarize your helpee’s presenting concerns, the helpee’s personal strengths, and the course of helping (i.e., what skills you used and why, compare/contrast specific skills used in the first versus second sessions, etc.). Students may include basic demographic information (e.g., age, gender identity, race/ethnicity) but must avoid significant identifiable information about the helpee (e.g., name, address).
Strengths and Growth Edges (1-2 pages): Discuss your strengths and areas for growth in using helping skills this semester, including specific examples of skills you used well, skills that were challenging for you, and helpee’s reactions. Be sure to include quotes from your helping session recordings as an example of the skills you discuss and refer to the data from your SPOMs.
Cultural Awareness (1-2 pages): Reflect on the ways in which your social identities, personality, and/or family background/upbringing influence your style of helping or your particular experience in the helping process. What power dynamics could have been present in the room and how did you/could you have mitigated them?
Theory (2-3 pages): Include a) an outline of one of the three overarching theories covered in class (or an alternative theory approved by your instructor) and b) how you see this theory helping the helpee. Be sure to discuss strengths and limitations of your chosen theory and how you would apply this theory if you were to engage in a long-term helping relationship with your helpee.
Personal and/or Professional Application (1 page): Consider how you anticipate using helping skills in a chosen professional field of study and/or your interpersonal relationships.
it is ok to make up information regarding the personal aspects of the paper.
