Handling Assertively in Human Services Internship

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Student’s Name
University
Human Services Internship
Student’s Name
University
Human Services Internship
9.3: One situation where I handled myself assertively
Assertiveness is a positive way of relating to others while respecting them while at the
same time ensuring that you meet your required needs. In one situation I was handling one of the
clients who seemed to undermine me and feel that I was not able to handle his case because I
was an intern. This made me apply the empathetic assertive model of communication model
where the use of “I” is applied to assertively raise the issue of concern. Here, i told him “you
have to be patient so that I can handle your issue, when you fail to appreciate my efforts, then I
am sorry I may not be able to assist you since I am the only one who has been assigned to your
case, I am sorry you will not get any other assistance”. From this statement, I was being assertive
by valuing by rights, voicing my needs confidently, and acknowledging that the client cannot
control my behavior and the way I handle him. Balcescu (215) suggests that to be assertive, one
has to connect between the adaptive modalities and interpersonal relations to handle the
situations that one faces. Thus as an assertive person, communication and the way you voice
your concerns is important in achieving the desired goals. In this case, I was able to handle the
issue assertively since I ensured that the client understood my rights and the fact that violating
them offends me which will, in turn, affect the way I handled him. Actually, the outcome of this
process was an apology from the client after I communicated to him assertively. One barrier that

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I face in assertive communication is choosing the appropriate model of communication to use. In
most cases, I am supposed to reason fast and pick a model that fits the needs of the situation.
9.7 Personal reflection: Observation of self and others
From the analysis, my score was 64, thus my score is below average which means that I
have lesser stressors in life and thus the need to work on them and address them in a way that
will make me a better person. Further, the eight-item scale analysis of my stressors at work
shows a score of 24 which reflects moderate stress levels in my internship and professional life.
This means that I have to work on my stress levels and reduce the score to a lower level than the
score that I have now.
In the ICSRLE test, several issues of concern have been noted are mostly related to
personal issues that I need to focus on. The issues related to the personal feelings that I feel they
do not really affect me or raise any concern that I have. Thus, in my opinion, stressors can be
addressed at a personal level by learning how to cope with different situations (Holmes, 5). Most
of these factors are environmental and personal stressors that I believe I can work on at a
personal level now that I have identified them.
On the other hand, the eight-level scale has areas that I need to address in my
professional life to be a better professional. In most cases, I have difficulty managing my work,
expressing my opinions with my superiors and sometimes my job interferes with my work. This
means that I have to find ways of managing my relationships with my superiors and the
colleagues that I work with in my internship. This entails developing my assertive skills to
ensure that I am able to approach the issues that I face in the internship. The role of assertiveness
is to resolve issues like expressing my opinions to my superiors to seek assistance (Peneva &
Mavrodie, 11). Further, conflict management skills are important in assessing the challenges that

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I face in the workplace. In most cases, conflict is not all about the relationships with other people
but rather it is the relationship with the environment that one operates and lives in.
9.8 Reflection: observation of self and others
O'Connor & Cohn (3) suggest that dealing with stress is one way of staying healthy and
ensuring that one is able to relieve the stress level. To deal with the stress levels, I have to shift
my focus and sometimes change my attitudes and beliefs. In the shifting focus strategy, I apply
the directing strategy where the attention is shifted to other activities. This means that I have to
ensure that the stressors in the environment are reduced and then I have to find ways of sharing
with people that I feel can assist me to overcome such a problem. If the stress level is related to
work, then my immediate supervisor and fellow interns are important people for sharing the
concern with. Fellow interns offer the best environment since they are in the same career cadre
with me and the issues that I face may be related to them too. Amba (6) suggests that shifting
focus entails sharing the stressors with other people to seek assistance and views on how to deal
with the issues that affect you.
Further, I also use the changing attitudes and beliefs as a way of ensuring that my
thoughts and beliefs that may be creating a stress response. Kirschner, Young, & Fanjoy (17)
suggest that stress can be managed through maintaining positive and realistic self-talk that
assisted me to ensure that I am able to become realistic and reduce the stress levels. This means
that by changing the manner in which I perceive the things that I face in life, I will be able to
overcome the stressors and lead a better life. Thus when at work, sometimes I deal with different
client situations which may affect my thinking. Thus changing my attitudes and beliefs helped
me to address the unrealistic attitudes that I need to adjust.
9.9 Incentives for Van to change his work habits