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Advising and Helping 

The Advising and Helping competency area addresses the knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to providing counseling and advising support, direction, feedback, critique, referral, and guidance to individuals and groups.

Basic

One should be able to

• exhibit active listening skills (e.g., appropriately establishing interpersonal contact, paraphrasing, perception checking, summarizing, questioning, encouraging, avoid interrupting, clarifying);
• establish rapport with students, groups, colleagues, and others;
• facilitate reflection to make meaning from experience;
• understand and use appropriate nonverbal communication;
• strategically and simultaneously pursue multiple objectives in conversations with students;
• facilitate problem-solving;
• facilitate individual decision making and goal setting;
• challenge and encourage students and colleagues effectively;
• know and use referral sources (e.g., other offices, outside agencies, knowledge sources), and exhibit referral skills in seeking expert assistance;
• identify when and with whom to implement appropriate crisis management and intervention responses;
• maintain an appropriate degree of confidentiality that follows applicable legal and licensing requirements, facilitates the development of trusting relationships, and recognizes when confidentiality should be broken to protect the student or others;
• recognize the strengths and limitations of one's own worldview on communication with others (e.g., how terminology could either liberate or constrain others with different gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, cultural backgrounds); and
• actively seek out opportunities to expand one's own knowledge and skills in helping students with specific concerns (e.g., suicidal students) and as well as interfacing with specific populations within the college student environment (e.g., student veterans).

 
Intermediate

One should be able to

• perceive and analyze unspoken dynamics in a group setting;
• facilitate or coach group decision making, goal setting, and process;
• conduct individual professional development needs assessment and group assessment of organizational needs;
• identify patterns of behavior that signal mental health concerns;
• manage conflict;
• mediate differences between or among individuals and groups;
• appropriately mentor students and staff;
• demonstrate culturally appropriate advising, helping, coaching, and counseling strategies;
• initiate crises intervention responses and processes;
• develop and implement successful prevention and outreach programs on campus, including effective mental health publicity and marketing;
• utilize technology (e.g., websites, social networking, video clips, podcasts) to address students' mental health issues;
• provide advocacy services to survivors of interpersonal violence;
• develop and distribute accurate and helpful mental health information for students, faculty, and staff;
• develop avenues for student involvement in mental health promotion and de-stigmatization of mental illness (e.g., creating student advisory councils, peer education programs, advising student mental health organizations);
• consult with mental health professionals as appropriate; and
• engage in research and publication of mental health issues.

 
Advanced

One should be able to

• provide effective counseling services to individuals and groups;
• assess responses to counseling interventions;
• provide and arrange for the necessary training and development for staff to enhance their advising and helping skills;
• exercise institutional crisis intervention skills, and coordinate crisis intervention and response processes;
• collaborate with other campus departments and organizations as well as surrounding community agencies and other institutions of higher education to address mental health concerns in a comprehensive, collaborative way;
• provide mental health consultation to faculty, staff, and campus behavioral assessment teams;
• provide effective posttraumatic response to campus events and situations, collaborating with other appropriate campus departments; and
• develop liaisons with community mental health providers to ensure seamless and coordinated care (e.g., with hospitalizations, transfer of care).