Conflict Resolution Skills free essay sample

Conflict ResolutionPaper 10/9/10 Conflict resolution and relationship skills should go hand in hand. Learning conflict resolution skills means learning productive, effective, and non-destructive ways to face, cope with, and resolve conflict in all areas of life. This entails conflict in one’s personal and professional life. Relationship skills pertain to all the relationships in our lives- family, friends, spouses, coworkers and acquaintances. How we interact with the people in our lives has a direct bearing on our level of happiness, success, stress, and contentment. Oftentimes these different relationships involve conflicts and how we handle these conflicts affects the condition of these relationships. It is probably safe to say that a significant percentage of people could use some education to help improve their ability to resolve conflicts and improve their relationship skills. For many of us, what we learned while growing up was either dysfunctional or inadequate and we were left to figure the best ways out on our own. We will write a custom essay sample on Conflict Resolution Skills or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Society has taught us to have unrealistic expectations of the relationships in our lives especially from our significant others. We have come to expect others to know what we expect and want without really telling them. We have also grown up to believe that telling others how we feel and what we want is being pushy, demanding, or somehow unacceptable. One of the reasons that many people turn to alcohol and drugs is because of their inability to deal with the world around them and because they are not getting the things they need in their lives. As time goes on and they sink deeper into their addiction, their perception of the world around them becomes more and more distorted. It only stands to reason that their ability to handle conflict and function in their relationships also becomes more flawed and distorted. When you add in the fact that this whole process further damages their self-image and confidence, you can understand why they are in desperate need of some assistance in learning new skills in dealing with their life and the world around them. In order for the addict to really achieve recovery he/she must gain a whole new set of coping skills and conflict resolution and relationship skills should be high up on the list of priorities. Up until they entered treatment, many addicts chose either violence against someone else or escape into their substance of choice as their method of conflict resolution. It is easy to see how harmful this is to society as well as the individual. Often the only relationships they still have are severely damaged or very unhealthy. This can only result in more dysfunctional and damaged families. The only way to break this cycle is to make the necessary changes, like teaching the addict and their families a better way to handle the conflicts that occur in their lives. The best way to help the addict to start repairing the damage done to their family relationships and help them to build healthy new relationships is to teach them the skills they need to function in a healthy relationship. There are many different methods of conflict resolution. The important thing is for the counselor to find the best most effective methods and techniques to use to meet the clients needs-whether it is in a group setting or one-on-one. The same is true of relationship skills. I actually believe that conflict resolution IS a relationship skill. What techniques a counselor should teach to the client(s) should really depend on what the client needs. Is the client(s) an adult or a youth? What issues need to be addressed in order for progress to be made in their treatment? What stage of treatment are they in? These are just some of the questions to be considered. Conflict resolution and relationship skills are just a couple of the components to attend to in an effective treatment plan, but I do feel that they are important and can have a real bearing on the success of the entire program. Resources: Counseling Techniques, Second Edition by Rosemary A. Thompson www. npccny. org/info www. mindtools. com/pages/articles www. soencouragement. org/conflict-resolution http://axelg. com/basic-relationship-skills http://blogs. psychcentral. com/dbt/2010/08/3 www. growthcentral. com/RelationshipSkills. htm