How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 69
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In summary, therefore, empowerment can be described as having four goals:
that the client sees himself as the agent of change;
that the client is able to use the knowledge and skills of others in furthering their own interest;
that the client is able to work in partnership with professionals;
that the client is open to developing the problem-solving skills to address their situation.
It is important to identify some basic principles of practice with regard to the relationship between the
practitioner and client:
interact with the person and not the "migrant", “patient”, …;
respect the person's right to self-determination; accept the client's definition of the problem;
focus on strengths; respect the diversity of skills and knowledge that clients bring ;
share power and control; respect the client's right to contribute and trust his or her motivation to learn and
direct his or her life; be aware of cultural differences with regards to hierarchy and superiority.
look for groups: mutual help, consciousness raising, participation.
General Methods
The empowerment process can be described as being made up of four elements.
Attitudes, beliefs and values. This refers to the psychological aspects of empowerment. It covers selfsufficiency and belief in self-worth. It is concentrated either on individuals or groups.
Validation through collective experience. Sharing common experiences can avoid misinterpreting
individual experiences and help put these into perspective, alleviating loneliness and isolation. The
collective experience can motivate a group to pursue changes, that go beyond the individual.
Knowledge and skills for critical thinking. The ability to access and acquire information is an important
element of empowerment. This can enable individuals to analyse their situation independently and
critically, reducing self-blame and feelings of helplessness.
Action. Through empowerment individuals can develop plans for action to solve a problem. They can
develop strategies and behavioural patterns that might help them in future challenges. An increased ability
to co-operate with others is another possible outcome.
In addition, the empowerment process can be said to involve four stages:
Establishing a relationship between the adviser and the client to meet immediate needs such as access to
social services and benefits or to other sources of information;
Educating the client to improve his or her skills and thereby increasing the ability for self-help;
Securing resources. This implies the development of skills to deal with other organisations and agencies,
joining self-help-programmes and groups, or establishing and using social networks. Enabling social and
political action. Helping the client to be able to articulate social and political needs at the appropriate time,
enabling them to understand the basic principles of lobbying, negotiation, campaigning and so forth.
The last stage is the most politicised stage in the empowerment process and might not be relevant to all advisers
and organisations. But to ensure real change, the social and political context of the individual has to be
considered. How far practitioners want to take the four stages of empowerment depends on their objectives.
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