Support Skills
This support skill means being sincere, honest, and authentic when responding to students.
What is being Genuine?
This aspect of feeling skills reminds us not to tell someone how they should feel, but instead to acknowledge the emotions they actually have.
What is validation?
This type of question gets a specific answer from the client.
What is a closed-ended question?
Past, present and future - the section for getting that hot gossip.
What is the main concern?
Financial, sexual, physical, neglect, stalking, emotional, and exposure.
What are the types of abuse?
This support skill allows the listener to actively facilitate conversations with the clients.
What is being assertive?
A student looks upset and says, ‘It’s been a long week.’ You want to make sure you understand the emotion behind it. What skill do you use?
What is a feeling check?
This comm skill encourages the client to explore their thoughts and feelings by leaving them free to answer in many ways.
This section happens after the main concern section.
What is PIES
An emotional tug of war between wanting to live and wanting to die, but ultimately they just want to end the pain
What is ambivalence?
In peer support, this response focuses on truly understanding a person’s emotions, while the other response focuses on feeling sorry for them.
What is empathy versus sympathy?
By reminding someone that others often feel the same way, you are practicing this supportive technique.
What is a normalization?
Summarizing both the content and feelings the client expressed.
What is paraphrasing?
We are establishing this at the beginning of a session during our disclaimer?
What is establishing rapport?
Are you having thoughts of suicide? Are you safe to talk? Plan details and timeframe. Risk factors.
What is assessing the safety?
A peer supporter does this when they encourage a student to explore options instead of giving advice or telling them what to do.
What is empowering the client?
Asking yourself “Where do I feel this in my body?” or “What is this emotion trying to tell me?” is part of this process.
What is a feeling exploration?
"Okay", "Mmmm", *nodding your head* are all examples of this non-verbal communication skill.
What are minimal prompts?
"Peer Support is an anonymous and confidential listening service - we are not professional counsellors but highly trained students." is an example of this.
What is service education?
Incident, good times, tension building.
What is the cycle of abuse?
This skill reminds peer supporters that their personal beliefs should never influence how they respond to a student.
What is being non-judgmental?
Instead of telling a client how they must have felt, we use this technique to see if we are on the right track.
What is a perception check?
This is often the most feared communication skill, but it can be just as useful and thoughtful as a question.
What is silence?
We are developing this, when in the strategy section of the model.
What is the action plan?
Ensuring tools are safe, done so in a familiar place, and having a first aid kit near by are all examples.
What is harm reduction?