1.1 - Characteristics of Helpful People. Think about someone who has helped you in the past – a friend, teacher, neighbor, minister, or therapist. Make a list of some of the person’s characteristics that you found particularly helpful. Compare your list with those of your colleagues. Of all of the helpful characteristics on everyone’s list, which ones do you find in yourself and which ones do you want to develop? In your journal, record specific ways in which you need to change to be a more helpful person. List specific steps you would need to take to make these changes.
ANSWER: The characteristics that I found particularly helpful of a person who has helped me in the past were as follows; they were empathetic to my situation, they seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, they were honest, they communicated well, and they were very helpful. I believe that I too display all of these characteristics (empathy, ethical integrity, honesty, effective communication skills, genuine interest, honesty, communication, and helpfulness). In fact, I am the type of person that tries to help everyone I know overcome issues they are facing; so much so that I sometimes get take advantage of. Overall, I believe in order to be an effective human service professional I need to be high in positive emotionality, very helpful, empathetic, display genuine interest in client issues, have an ethical integrity, and friendly. Of those traits the one I believe that I lack in is that of being high in positive emotionality. Even though I mostly consider myself to be a positive person, I do have days when I am negative. In order to overcome this and become a more helpful person, I would need to focus more on appreciating as much as I possibly can, stop comparing my self or my life to other peoples, redefine failure, don’t dwell on the past, do some mental rehearsal, and realize that it is possible to choose how I behave and view the world around me. I also believe that in order to be...