Psychotherapy is effective (Wampold & Imel, 2015), however, some clinicians consistently achieve better outcomes with patients than others (Rousmaniere, Goodyear, Miller, & Wampold, 2017). This known difference has been recognized across disciplines including psychiatry, medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work (Gerdes, K. E., &…

Background: Although undergraduate psychology curriculum should cultivate performance-based skills to prepare students for helping professions, little work to date has addressed this standard. Objective: This research replicates the methods used in a previous study by examining pre-post changes in empathic communication skills and perceived…

The present study sought to examine the impact of the Sanford Harmony and Inspire programs as implemented in 10 "showcase" elementary schools during the 2018-19 school year. This study is a continuation of Phase I of the Sanford Harmony and Inspire Demonstration Site program evaluation, which was conducted during the 2017-18 school year…

Social work student participation in global experiences continues to increase despite limited research on the impacts of these educational experiences on knowledge and skill development. This article reports on professional identity and skill development for 25 U.S. Latinx students who completed internships or service-learning projects in Costa…

Although foundational practice classes play a key role in helping prepracticum students develop counseling skills, we know little about the effectiveness of this form of helping skills training. This study assessed the effect of helping skills training delivered in foundational practice classes on proximal indicators of counseling skills…

This paper describes an assessment of a web-based interview simulation designed to teach empathetic helping skills. The system includes an animated character acting as a client and responses designed to recreate a simulated role-play, a common assessment method used for teaching these skills. The purpose of this study was to determine whether…

A step-by-step model for training peer counselors forms the basis of the trainer's manual and accompanying exercises for trainees which are organized into two books for effective skill building. Designed for peer counseling trainees, this document presents the first of these two exercise books. The book begins with three very brief chapters which…

Pre- and posttest ratings on measures of helping skills such as empathy, respect, concreteness, and genuineness were obtained in the preliminary and advanced training. A significant training effect was obtained for both groups. Desensitization treatment was a significant source of variance for the experimental subjects in training. (Author/LA)

A trait measure of empathy, a skill measure of empathy and an attitude scale on psychological effectiveness were administered to both counselor trainees and "natural helpers", i.e. persons in helping relationships who have not been formally trained as mental health professionals or paraprofessionals. The results indicated that the…

This empirical study tested the effects of a systematically-designed training program to help medical students develop empathetic responses to patients and to attend not just to disease symptoms. Results indicate the success of the program. (Editor/LBH)

Since first-year psychiatric residents were observed to lack many interviewing skills necessary for both physicians and psychiatrists, a method of teaching the skills in a group setting with live patients was constructed. Research results supported self-report changes in empathy, congruence, and level of regard. (Author/LBH)

Empathy skill was operationalized using a videotape of client-worker interviews and a questionnaire. Two conditions for the development of empathy skill, (1) an experiential-didactic course, and (2) a structured meditation experience, are described. Positive change in scores was found with meditation attainment. Limitations and implications are…

Beginning counselors are rarely able to avoid anxiety during early counseling sessions. The fears involved in demonstrating counseling arise from: (1) irrational beliefs concerning "the perfect response;" (2) academic coursework which seems to equate psychological illness with poor counseling skills; (3) uncertainty about necessary skills; and (4)…

Progress on a research project at the University of New South Wales that has attempted to develop a test of the interpersonal communication skills of medical students is summarized. The test, which used films of doctor-patient interactions, was designed to measure the ability to respond appropriately to the emotional content of the interactions.…

Human service educators constantly struggle with how to best teach students the communication skills required of entry-level human service professionals. While teaching such skills is easier in a traditional face-to-face environment, teaching communication skills via distance learning presents its own challenges. Developing interactive web-based…