VERBATIM 3

Client Identifying Information:

Initials: S

Age: 26

Sex: Female

Occupation: Student

Socio-economic Status: Upper Middle Class

Session No.: 15

Client/ Dialogue Skills Comments

Therapist
T1
Hey

C1 Helloooooo

T2 Am I audible? For some reason I

can’t see you
C2 Yeah, you are. Really? Now?
T3 Uh huh, not yet.
C3 Just a minute. Now?

T4 Ah yes! I can finally see you. I’m Questioning

sorry about that. So, how have you skills (open
been? ended questions)
C4 I have been doing a lot better lately.

T5 Mmmhmm? And what do you mean Questioning

by better? skills (open
ended questions)
C5 Like a lot better. I wake up, I attend Should have
college, I actually pay attention in paraphrased.
classes, I’m running and swimming
again, so yay!
T6 Mmhmmm? Encouraging
(Minimal
encourager)
C6 I’ve been feeling a little good off
lately. It’s been going good with my
partner as well, we’ve been planning
to watch musical tonight.
T7 That’s great to hear. I’m so glad for Questioning Should’ve probed
you. Do you have anything to tell skills (open more on the client
me today? ended questions) feeling insecure
previously or asked
“On the scale of 1-10
how insecure are you
about your
relationship, even
now?”
C7 Ummmmm yeah.

T8 Go ahead Encouraging Should’ve been subtler

(Minimal like, “what would you
encourager) like to tell me?”
C8 Nah, I guess it’ll be fine
T9 Are you sure? Questioning Should’ve said, “It’s
skills (close alright for you to tell
ended questions) me if it is really
bothering you”
C9 I guess so,
T10 You know you can always talk to Showing positive
me right? If anything is bothering regard
you, you can vent it out.
C10 Like you know things haven’t been
okay between me and my brother,
and the worst is that he doesn’t quite
share things with me like he used to.
Well, that’s fine because he is
grown up and all that and there’s no
necessity that he has to tell me
everything. But the most annoying
part is, is that he got a laptop. And
I’m still using mine since like for 6
years with all tapes on it. And my
brother has 2 of them now.
T11 That must have been hard on you, Empathy +
how is that making you feel? Questioning
Skills (Open
ended
questioning)
C11 Annoyed? Frustrated? More like
that’s unfair and that’s not justified,
cuz I kept asking my dad to get me a
laptop and he asked me to choose
between going abroad and new
laptop. Like, of course I would
 choose coming here. It’s the same
with my previous phone as well, I
wanted to giveaway my previous
phone and get a better phone with
the money I got. But my dad is a big
time hoarder, so he wanted to keep
hoarding broken old things and did
not let me give away my phone.
Like we have TV from 1993, just
like kept there and that’s how much
of a hoarder he is.
T12 Correct me if I’m wrong, its more Paraphrasing +
like you feel frustrated, annoyed, Reflection of
unjust because your parents have Feelings
been treating you and your brother
differently

C12 More like it, yes. I mean this has

happened multiple time. And I kinda
know things like these aren’t
supposed to bother me, because its
me who has voluntarily cut them
off.

T13 Mmhmmm? Encouraging .

C13 And, my brother is physically closer
to them and he has always been the
favorable one. And because it’s a
choice that I made, it’s probably like
I have to take the responsibility of
the consequences which comes with
 it.

T14 There you go, you already know the

answer to it.
C14 Well, all those sessions just
reconditioned me I guess

T15 Its great that you have been all the Feedback
while diligently using things we
discussed in sessions practically,
and that is one of the reason your
progress is great.

C15 Thank you.

T16 But, that doesn’t mean that you have Questioning
no rights to feel upset, or annoyed Skills (open
about it. It’s a normal human ended questions)
emotion, and when you willing to + Influencing
take responsibility of consequences, skills (Focusing)
don’t you think emotions are a part
of consequences too?

C16 Oh yes, they are. Mmmm.Like,

looking at it, like you said, umm, I
mean. Yeah! Bottom line, I will
work on taking responsibility for
that as well, I mean I think I’m just
gonna accept it. I think all this time I
kinda focused on how I should not
feel the emotions, but I knew that I
 have don’t it. So, it was more like I
was contradicting myself because I
kept my emotions and actions
separate. And I never tried
acknowledging that they come
together. I think this is what made it
hard for me.

T17 Sirisha, I’m actually happy that you Feedback + Should’ve not used the
are able to connect the dots and Questioning word “happy”, instead
thing. You’ve gained like a lot of skills (open should’ve said, “It’s
insight. Is there anything else you ended questions) good that you are able
would like to talk about? to connect the dots”
C17 Nothing as such for now

T18 If not, then we can move to

termination as discussed in the last
session
C18 Okay, just the part I wanted to avoid
T19 Hahhaha, its alright. You can always Should’ve used open
reach back if necessary. ended questioning and
asked “What is making
you avoid it?”
C19 I can? Okay, that’ll be fine then.
T20 Okay. Okay. So, again, I’ll just brief Influencing skills
about what termination is and how it (Informing)
is going to go. So basically
termination is the end of therapeutic
relationship between the client and
the therapist. And termination takes
place when both of us agree on
 terminating the therapeutic
relationships. So just clarifying once
again, you agree to terminate the
sessions right?
C20 Yes. I mean I’m kinda tensed as
well. Like what’s gonna happen
next? Who am I going to rant to or
bit** about things to? Or what do I
do if something goes down. But I’ve
seen myself getting better, and
somewhere I feel like there’s no
point in holding on to it as well.
Like if I’m just holding on because
I’m scared, it doesn’t make much
sense.
T21 So you feel afraid about termination, Reflection of
is it? First thing is that now you are feelings
pretty equipped with all the things.
Like you what to do when you’ve
hit the rock bottom. You’ve learnt
all the skills and you are pretty good
at applying. So you don’t need my
help anymore, these are things that
you can do by yourself, without my
help. You know how do deal with it
when you feel anxious, your
nightmares have reduced too. And if
there is anything you want to talk
about, or you need any help
regarding your mental health, you
can always restart your therapy.
C21 Okay, that was assuring. I don’t feel
much anxious as well. So, I hope it
is that way.
T22 Yes, okay, can you, can we revise Questioning
the skills that we discussed from the skills (close
first session? ended question)

C22 Yeah, we can do that.

T23 Looking at it from the beginning, Summarizing +
you told me that you had lot of Influencing skills
anxiety regarding your parents, and (focusing)
often ran out of breath, had
palpitation, felt like you were losing
control, and all right. So incase you
have feels such symptoms again,
what would you do?
C23 I’d write five things I can see, four
things I can hear, three things I can
smell, two things I can taste and one
thing I can smell.
T24 You said smell twice. You left out Influencing skills
the taste part (instructions)
C24 Did I? oh yeah. One thing I can
taste. I’m sorry.
T25 Its completely alright. And then? Encouraging
C25 And photo walk? That kinda helped
me too, and makes me get out as
well.
T26 Mmm,, if it works for you then its Questioning Should’ve not said “if
fine. skills (open it works for you then
And what about time management? ended question) its fine”, instead
 +Influencing should’ve told “yes,
skills (Focusing) studies too show that it
actually helps in
reducing anxiety, I’m
glad it works for you”
C26 Yes, that as well. Dissertation hit me
hard. I don’t want to go through that
phase again. I will never keep
submissions that late. The table
thingi you told me?
T27 Yeah, priority matrix Influencing skills
(Informing)
C27 Could you send me that template
again? I think I lost it
T28 Its pretty simple, urgency of the task Influencing skills
is X axis, and the importance of the (Informing +
task is Y axis. You divide the graph instruction)
into four parts. You can write it
down if you want. And. Mmm, and.
Your topmost left is high
importance and high urgency. This
is your “do it first”. Your topmost
right is “do next”, and that is like,
high importance and low urgency.
I’ll wait for you to finish writing.
Ha, next to your bottom left is “do
later”, its kind of low importance
and high urgency. And the last part
will be your “don’t do”, and that is
like low importance and low
urgency. Did you write it all? Do
 you want me to repeat anything?

C28 The third one was “do later” right?

T29 Yeah. And if you find doing the Influencing skills
same subject boring, then you can (informing)
keep switching while taking breaks.
You can use pomodoro technique
for this as well.
C29 Pomodoro is the study, break, study,
revise thing right?

T30 Yes. 25 minutes study, 5 minutes, Influencing skills

repeating this for 2 to 3 time and (Informing)
taking a long break. And you end it
with revision. Okay then?
C30 I remember something about dot
painting as well for anxiety. And
gratitude journaling, daily
journaling, meditating, no phone
before sleep, stooping to eat when
my stomach is full, meditation
before sleep, setting an intention
daily, to-do list.
T31 Oh yes, I forgot about the dot Feedback Instead, should’ve said
painting. You really remember a lot “That’s interesting
of things, wow. how you remember
tiny details as well,
I’m glad that it has
helped you”
C31 I do. I remember cuz all of them
became a habit. It’s not like I do it
 every single day, sometimes I’m so
tired due to work so I just pass out.
But it’s what I do most of the days. I
do skip, but rarely. Mood journal I
do every day, and its way too
satisfying to see the blocks getting
filled with more yellow day by day.
Before it used to be like blue and
green, and its more orange and
yellow lately. It makes me feel, like,
a lot better? I can say, it’s like I’ve
been doing something, at least this is
going right in my life.
T32 Okay, wow. That’s nice to hear. Questioning Should’ve given
Okay, okay. As we are terminating a skills (close appropriate feedback
session, let’s have one last ended questions) like “That is great to
terminating activity? hear you progress, and
its your effort that has
given you the results”
C32 Works.
T33 It’s kind of a simple activity, called Influencing skills
“letter to your counsellor”. So, so, I (Instruction)
mean its self-explanatory right. You
write a letter to your counsellor. It’s
like a good-bye letter. You can write
anything you want, whatever you
want. You can write about, happiest
moments in the sessions, or hardest
parts of the sessions, how you coped
up with it, you takeaways from the
therapy, you can write about how
 the therapist helped, you can write
anything if you have to tell me, you
can give your feedback and well,
both positive and negative, basically
your journey. And you can use
crayons, color pencils, sketch pens,
anything, you can get as creative as
you want. It’s just like a closure part
for the sessions.
C33 Oh my god, you can expect
waterworks.
T34 Haahahaha, it’s not the first time. Empathy
It’s okay for the waterworks to
happen, I will be there by your side
to pass on virtual tissues.
C34 Done, should I get color pens and
stuff?
T35 Yeah, you can get anything you
want. Anything would work.