Conducting an effective counseling interview

2. assists clients in
 developing self-understanding
 forming conclusions
 looking at alternative actions
 viewed as a helping interview
 used by social workers to build a social history
 Used by Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists
to form treatment considerations

3. A. General appearance
B. Attitude and behavior
C. Affect and mood
D. Demographic information
E. Work experience
F. Medical history
G. Educational history
H. Family history

4.  Worker role
◦ Work history
 Homemaker
◦ Spouse
◦ Parent
 Leisure role
 Citizen role

5.  Identifying client goals
 Determining the feasibility of goals
 Establishing subgoals
 Assessing commitment to goals (Brown, Brooks,
and associates, 1990)

6.  Problems in living
 Behaviors that may lead to work maladjustment
 Faulty cognitions
 Memory and persistence

7.  1.) rapport
 2.) observation
 3.) self-disclosure
 4.) open and close- ended questions
 5.) Echoing, restatement, or paraphrasing
 6.) Continuation
 7.) staying on track.

8.  greet with enthusiasm
 Communicate with sincerity and competence.
 Use the client’s terms for expressing an emotion.
 Express interest through Body language and
verbal expressions
 Resist using psychological jargon.

9.  Observe body language
 jot down first impressions but is willing to modify
early conclusions when it is justifiable
 Voice recording or video recording with the client’s
permission

10.  Counselors should be very selective when using
self –disclosure
 immediate feedback through self-disclosure about
a client’s personal problems usually increase the
client’s willingness to discuss them in greater
depth (Halpern, 1977; Thase and Page,
1977;Cormier, 1991)

11.  open-ended questions facilitate emotion or expression
( Hopkinson, Cox, and Rutter, 1981)
 close-ended questions have higher reliability and
narrow the focus of the interview (Othmer and Othmer,
1989)
 Open-ended questions usually are formed with the
worlds tell me, explain more fully, what, how, when, or
where
 Close-ended questions request more specific
information
 clients’ statements or mixed messages can be clarified
through the use of both open-ended and close-ended
questions

12.  To focus attention on the situation, object, person,
or general idea of a statement
 Paraphrasing or echoing the cognitive portion of a
statement provides greater chances for obtaining
a measure of the emotional tone associated with
its content

13.  steering techniques used to encourage clients to
go on with topic
 Use nonverbal gestures such
◦ eye contact
◦ nodding
◦ staying silent
◦ using hand movements that invite the client to continue
 Typical statements
◦ “Go On”, Tell me more,” Hmm,” and What happened after
that?”
(Othmer and Othmer,1989).

14.  Maintaining content focus is an effective technique
for gainful productive in a dyadic relationship