The qualies and responsibilities of the social skills trainer

The first article in this series outlined a range of options which the social skills trainer has when deciding how to design and run his training programmes. We also emphasised that there was no need for the trainer to attach himself too rigidly to one approach and that during a single training event he could give his course members the opportunity to learn through ‘thinking’, ‘doing’ and ‘feeling’. The second article concentrated on the crucial nature of feedback in social skills training, exploring different types of feedback and looking at the different ways in which it could be given. This third and final article describes the skills which the trainer needs to acquire and develop, and looks at the responsibilities he is likely to have. The points we make apply particularly to the types of courses which are based largely on a ‘feelings’ approach and which in broad terms are concerned to examine the nature of the relationships between the course members. However, we believe that the article will be of interest to anybody who has an interest in social skills training.