Consultation

Internal & External Roles of Consultants

*An external consultant is hired from outside the organization, is likely to have a formal written contract, and to be seen as expert by the consultees. *An internal consultant already belongs to the organization to which consultation is being provided. This position may aid or detract from the consultant's effectiveness, depending in part on how objective the consultant can be and on the consultant's reputation in the organization. *An internal consultant may or may not be paid for consultation. *Even with no formal contract, internal consultants are urged to have a signed written agreement.

In Adlerian's Model the principles of encouragement are:

*acceptance, *separation of the actor from the act, *effort is more important than outcome, *present functioning is more important than past performance, *intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation, and *recognizing the importance of the individual for his or her own sake

The stages of the Social Learning Consultation Model are:

*to develop a warm and open relationship with the consultee. *assess the problem. *state the problem and goals *implement client selection and implementation of an intervention *monitor and evaluate the intervention.

There are four types of mental health consultations.

1. Client-centered case consultation, in which the consultant's focus is advising the consultee on how best to serve a client. The consultant may meet with the client before diagnosing the problem. 2. Consultee-centered case consultation, in which the consultant's focus is identifying and remedying the shortcomings of the consultee's professional functioning that are responsible for the difficulty in managing a case. The shortcomings are due to lack of knowledge, skill, confidence, or objectivity. Lack of objectivity takes five forms: *Direct personal involvement. *Simple identification. For example, a consultee who was conflicted about his experience with a particular agency feels very strongly that a client should not seek help at that agency. *Transference. The consultee's own past experiences color how the client's current situation is viewed. *Characterological distortion. This is the most extreme form of lack of objectivity and occurs when some aspect of the consultee's personality prevents effective work with clients. For example, a consultee working with crime victims hasn't resolved his own issues surrounding victimization and disappointment with authority figures. *Theme interference. This occurs when the consultee feels hopeless about the client's situation because of an expectation that a particular situation will inevitably lead to an undesirable outcome. For example, a consultee may believe that everyone who experiments with drugs as a teenager will suffer greatly and be unproductive as an adult. Therefore, when working with a particular teen who is engaging in normative drug experimentation, consultee chooses ineffective interventions. 3. Program-centered administrative consultation, in which an administrator seeks help for a problem within an institution, a problem of program development, or with planning and implementing organizational policies. The consultant provides feedback in the form of a written report. 4. Consultee-centered administrative consultation, in which the focus is on the consultee's work difficulties and improving his/her problem-solving skills in dealing with current organizational planning, program development, or policy problems.

Features of Consultation

Certain features define consultation regardless of which model of consultation is being used.

Dougherty (1995, pp 9-10)

Consultants help practitioners better serve their own clients. Participation in the consultation process should be voluntary by all the parties involved. Consultees have the freedom to decide what they will do with the suggestions and recommendations of the consultant. The relationship between the consultee and the consultant is, at its best, a collaboration of peers who are equal in power. Consultation is a temporary process aimed at helping the consultee move toward autonomy and independence. Consultation is primarily aimed at problems with work or caretaking as opposed to personal concerns. Consultants can take on a variety of roles in consultation. Consultation typically occurs in an organizational context.

Models of Consultation.

Consultation is essentially a problem-solving process. The problems stem from the consultee, the client, or the environment. The source of the problem is identified during the process of assessment.

Consultation defined

Entails a counselor sharing his or her expertise with a consultee (other professionals, parents, schools, and organizations) to help the consultee solve some work-related problem. With consultation, the counselor is indirectly helping a third party by assisting the consultee to serve that third party more effectively. Stated another way, "Human services consultation is engaged primarily for the purpose of assisting consultees to develop attitudes and skills that will enable them to function more effectively with a client, which can be an individual, group, or organization for which they have responsibility (Brown, Pryzwansky & Schulte, 2001, p. 6)

Block's (1981) Stages

Entry and contracting. In this stage, assessment of the consultant's skills is made, goals are established, and evaluations of the client's strengths and areas of improvement are identified. Data collection and diagnosis. During this stage, it is important to pay attention to informal power and structure as well as the formal because these can influence resistance and make a consultative alliance difficult. Feedback and decision to act. Note that the management and the employees within an organization may have different world views; this may be a source of conflict. Implementation/intervention. Interventions can be varied. Note that one type, called the catalytic model (Blake & Mouton, 1976), involves the consultant helping the consultee to obtain new information so that the consultee may "reinterpret his or her perceptions of how things are." Extension, recycle or termination. This stage occurs sometime after the initial intervention has been implemented. The consultant evaluates the intervention's effectiveness, and then either takes steps toward termination or discusses a new contract.

Brown, Pryzwansky, & Schulte's (2001) Stages

Entry into the organization through formal or informal means. Initiation of a consulting relationship. Assessment. Problem definition and goal setting. Strategy selection. Strategy implementation. Evaluation. Formative evaluation takes place DURING plan implementation. Summative evaluation takes place AFTER consultation has been completed. Termination.

Mental Health Consultation Model

Gerald Caplan's work is the basis for mental health consultation. This model, more than others, emphasizes the importance of intrapsychic factors interacting with environmental factors in determining behavior. Caplan identified four types of consultation which differ on these two dimensions: the content focus of the consultation (i. e. difficulty with a client or an administrative problem) and the goal of concentration (i.e. providing information in the consultant's specialty area or improvement of the consultee's ability to solve problems). There are four types of mental health consultations.

Human Services vs. Organization Development Consultation

The goal of human services consultation is to improve the mental health of individuals. The goal of organizational development consultation is to improve the function of organizations (Brown, 1993).

Brown, Pryzwansky, & Schulte (2001, p. 6)

The relationship is initiated by either consultant or consultee. The relationship is characterized by authentic communication. The consultees may be professionals or nonprofessionals. The consultant provides indirect services to third-party clients. The consultant provides direct services to consultees, assisting them to develop coping skills that ultimately make them independent of the consultant. The types of problems considered are work related when the concept of work is broadly conceived (not a personal consultee problem). The consultant's role varies with the consultees needs. The consultant may be based within or outside the consultees organization. All communication between consultant and consultee is confidential.

The Social Learning Consultation Model

This model emphasizes that behavior is determined by the reciprocal determinism among intrapsychic factors, behavior, and the environment. The goal of consultation is to change the relationship among these three variables to improve functioning.

Stages of Consultation

Two conceptualizations of the stages of consultation: 1. Block's (1981) Stages 2. Brown, Pryzwansky, & Schulte's (2001) Stages.

The principles of systems theory as applied to organization are:

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The principles of systems theory as applied to organization are:

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The principles of systems theory as applied to organization are:

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The consultant in the Social Learning Consultation Model

acts as a facilitator, helping the consultee develop appropriate behavioral standards and encouraging self-efficacy.

The social learning based interventions include

cognitive restructuring, performance enactments, systematic desensitization, self-monitoring.

Organizational Consultation

current models of organizational consultation are based on systems theory. Human services organizations are open systems, meaning information flows between the system and the larger environment (Brown, Pryswansky, & Schulte, 2001).

The Behavioral-Operant Model (Bergan & Kratochwill, 1990)

emphasizes how the consultant skillfully uses verbal processes and leads to gather the information needed for a skillful consultation. Verbal processes include: specification, evaluation, inference, summarization, and validation. Leads include: elicitors-direct questions and statement like "Tell me more about...", emitters-statements of content and process. The information that is gathered from the consultee belongs to these content categories: *background-environment *The setting in which the client's behavior occurs. *The parameters of the client's behavior. *Special characteristics of the client. *The nature of the observations made. *Plans that have been tried or might be tried. *Other information that might be needed to solve the problem. The steps of the consultation process are: problem identification, problem analysis, problem implementation, and problem evaluation. The behavioral intervention strategies include: contingency, contracting, shaping, positive and negative reinforcement, behavioral rehearsal, etc.

Behavioral Consultation

is a problem-solving model based on behavioral principles. Two major models of behavioral consultation are the Behavior-Operant Model and the Social Learning Model. Both emphasize the importance of systematic assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Goals should be observable and measurable.

Adlerian Consultation Model

is based on Adlerian principles and is commonly used in a school environment. It has not been widely researched.

The principles of systems theory as applied to organization are: Differentiation

is natural within organizations. This results in the following subsystems: leadership, goals and values, sgtructure, technology, and psychosocial. The psychosocial sub

An assumption in the Adlerian Consultation Model

is that children's misguided behavior is the result of discouragement. Discouragement manifests itself in behavior with one or more of four goals: attention, power, revenge, or withdrawal. Encouragement, expressing belief that a person has worth that is not tied to his accomplishments, counteracts discouragement. Adler: ENCOURAGEMENT-DISCOURAGEMENT=KEY

Consultation involves

some of the same skills required for counseling, along with some specialized knowledge and skills. It is not the same activity as counseling, teaching, collaboration, or supervision.

In Adlerian's Consultation Model, intervention strategies include

taking advantage of natural consequences (administered by the environment) and logical consequences (administered by a person).

In Adlerian's Consultation Model, diagnosing the problem requires

understanding the client's internal frame of reference not just observing his behavior. The consultee's feelings in reaction to the client are used to make a diagnosis. Clients may be asked fanciful questions to help diagnose their guiding fictions.