Attending to Facilitate Involvement

During the pre-processing stage, the helpers attend or give attention to the helpees in order to involve them in the helping process. Attending involves communicating a hovering or undivided attentiveness to the helpees. Attending serves to focus the helpers’ observing and listening skills upon the helpees’ verbal and behavioral expressions of their experiences. These attending skills focus helping upon the helpees’ experiences. Attending also serves to communicate an intense interest in the experiences of the helpees and so motivates them to become involved in the helping process.

HELPER ATTENDING HELPEE INVOLVEMENT

The basic attending skills are attending physically, observing and listening. Helpers attend physically so that they can observe. In turn, they observe so that they can listen. Attending physically emphasizes facing, squaring, leaning toward and making eye contact with the helpees. Observing emphasizes viewing the appearance and behavior of the helpees. Listening emphasizes “hearing” the content and the affect, or feelings, of the helpees’ expressions of their experiences.

HELPER ATTENDING—ATTENDING PHYSICALLY, OBSERVING AND LISTENING