A PROBLEM-MANAGEMENT

AND OPPORTUNITY-DEVELOPMENT
APPROACH TO HELPING
 
By Gerard Egan (Loyola University of Chicago, 2007)

THE SKILLED
HELPER MODEL OF
HELPING
 The model is client-centered
in the sense that the starting
point is the troubled person’s
humanity and concerns.
 It is about people with
problem situations and
unused opportunities.
 Treatment is not
just “fixing what is
broken;” it is also
nurturing what is
best.
 At the heart of the model is
listening and understanding –
but also recognizes that
people often need to be
invited to challenge
themselves if they are to
improve their lot in life. It is
caring, tough love.
 The model is cognitive,
affective, and behavioural –
because it deals with the way
people think, the way they
come to feel and express
emotions, and the way they
act.
Basic Questions
 Why do people seek help
in the first place?
 What is the principal goal
of helping?
Two starting points of the Helping
Process:
 1.) Problem Situations
 2.) Missed
opportunities and
unused potential
 A. Problem Situations
 Complex and messy problems in living that they
are not handling well.
 Situations that are poorly defined.
 Crises, troubles, doubts, difficulties, frustrations,
concerns.
 They arise in our interactions with ourselves, with
others, with social settings, organizations,
institutions.
 [N.B. Problems have an upside – they are
opportunities for learning].
B. Missed opportunities and unused
potential
 Not to manage their problems
better but to live more fully.
 The question is not what is
going wrong, but of what could
be better.
 We are capable of dealing much
more.
Two Principal Goals of Helping:

 1.) To help clients manage their

problems (difficulty, trouble, crisis,
dilemma, setback, predicament) in
living more effectively and
developing unused or underused
resources and opportunities more
fully.
 2.) To help clients
become better at
helping themselves in
their everyday lives.
 The model believes that a
client’s problem situations
and unused opportunities are
often related, directly or
indirectly, to his/her degree
or level of maturity.
 OVERVIEW OF THE MODEL
 STAGE 1: Current Scenario/ Picture
 “What’s going on?” “What’s wrong?”
 Three tasks of the counsellor:
 1. Help clients tell their stories.
 2. Help clients develop new perspectives
that help them reframe their stories.
 3. Help clients achieve leverage by
working on issues that make a difference.
Stage 2: The Preferred Picture
 “What do I want?”
 Help clients identify, choose,
and shape problem-managing
goals.
 This stage focuses on
outcomes – the “better future;”
develops a sense of hope.
 Three tasks of the counsellor:
 1. Help clients use their imaginations to spell
out possibilities for a better future.
 2. Help clients choose realistic and
challenging goals that are real solutions to the
key problems and unused opportunities
identified in Stage 1.
 3. Help clients find the incentives that will help
them commit themselves to their change
agendas. (motivation, encouragement,
reason).
Stage 3: The Way Forward
 “How do I get what I need or
want?”
 Help clients develop
strategies and plans for
accomplishing goals.
Three tasks of the counsellor:
 Help clients review possible
strategies to achieve goals.
 Help clients choose the strategies
that best fit their resources.
 Help clients pull chosen strategies
together into a viable plan.
The Action Arrow
 “How do I make it all happen?”
 Help clients implement their
plans.
 “How are we doing?” - on-
going evaluation of the helping
process.
 Skilled Helper Model (Egan)
Diagram of the Model

   
   
STAGE 1   STAGE 2   STAGE 3
   
   
   
Current Scenario Preferred Scenario Action Strategies
1a - The story (What's 2a - Possibilities (Ideally ,what 3a - Possible actions (How
going on?) do I want instead?) many ways are there?)
                                                                 
1b - Blind spots (What's 2b - Change Agenda (SMART 3b - Best fit strategies (What
really going on?) goals) will work for me?)
                                                                 
1c – Leverage 2c - Commitment (Check 3c - Plan (What next and
(Focusing/prioritising) goals are right) when?)
Action Leading to Valued Outcomes
Five major values from the tradition of
the helping professions:
 Respect - foundational value
 Empathy - primary orientation value
 Genuineness - professional value
 Client Empowerment - responsibility-
focused value
 Bias toward action - outcome-
focused value
 There is nothing
magic about change
- it is hard work!!!