Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Communication Series:

Counseling Techniques

Counseling Techniques
Course Created/Authored By:

Muriel L. Irwin, MLEd.,CTO II, Employee Development Unit

Course Adapted From:

Adapted from articles written by author Jan Carrie Stevens

Course Approved by & Date:

Etta Thomas, Curriculum Development Specialist
Jerry Mayfield, Training Coordinator II
15-Mar-2012
Bryan D. Bell, Training Specialist II
04-Mar-2013
Dr. Don Kiffin, Training Administrator
17-Mar-2014
Annual Reviewer & Dates:
Muriel L. Irwin, MLEd., CTO II
19-Mar-2012
Muriel L. Irwin, MLEd., CTO II
19-Mar-2013
Muriel L. Irwin, MLEd., CTO II
17-Mar-2014
Assigned Course Code Index:
ELM Category :

01-Mar-2010

DOC 502

In-Service Classroom or Supervisory On-Line

Type of Training Credit :

Supervisory

Training Credit:

1 hour

Approved Instructor(s):

In-Service Classroom - Certified Instructor or Supervisory On-Line - None

Target Population(s):

All Correctional Employees

Delivery/Presentation Method:

Classroom or Self-Paced

Evaluation Procedures:

Instructor Observation/ None

Data Sources:
Written permission from author Jan Carrie Stevens has been granted and is on file:
www.basic-counseling-skills.com

The
Employee Development
(EDU) strives to continuously provide
Counseling
TechniquesUnit
- Abstract
information to educate our employees regarding the development of
interpersonal communication skills. Set in the Communication Series
category this curriculum will assist us in meeting our mission of
developing employees by exploring alternatives, building on strengths,
and developing new skills.

Objectives
During this information session, you will be able to:

Identify the benefits of counseling.

Determine in what areas counseling can be beneficial.
Identify some of the qualities of a good counselor.
Identify the elements of good counseling skills.
Identity inappropriate responses in counseling.
Identify the important counseling technique tools.
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Introduction
There are times that the challenges in our lives may lead to isolation,
anxiety, depression, and other health problems. Through counseling, you
can explore your alternatives, build on your strengths, and develop new
skills.
Your feelings and concerns about family, friends, health, and work
deserve attention. Counseling gives you the opportunity, in a quiet,
supportive environment, to take the time to stop, think, and plan. With
sensitive and caring feedback, you can gain new awareness and learn to
deal with your challenges in new, productive ways.

Benefits of Counseling
Benefits of Counseling

Improved communication
Enhanced relationships
A happier family
Peace of mind
Improved self-esteem
More satisfaction out of life
Personal growth
Improved job performance
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Benefits of Counseling
Counseling may be helpful in any of the following areas:

Adult relationships
Career change
Dealing with loss of a loved one
Anxiety
Depression
Adjustment to family changes
Parent-child relationships
Sibling relationships
Divorce
Cooperative parenting between divorced parents
Abusive relationships
Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Disorder
Trauma
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Essential Counseling Techniques

Some Qualities of a Good Counselor

Empathy (the ability to understand the view of

another person)
Respectful
Warm
Confidential/discreet
Honest
Attentive/listening
Unbiased
Understandable/clear
Unhurried
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Elements of Counseling Skills

Effective Questioning
Use questions to elicit facts or feelings about the clients health.
Use closed-ended questions (yes/no) to quickly gather factual, nonsensitive information (e.g., name, age).
Open-ended questions (e.g., What do you know about the working
with female offenders? or Why do you think a career in corrections
is for you?) are critical for eliciting feelings and detailed information.
Use probing questions (e.g., Can you tell me more about ____?) to
elicit more in-depth information.
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Elements of Counseling Skills

Active Listening
In order to get the information you need to help a client, you must
listen actively. This technique involves communicating, without
words, your interest in the needs the client expresses. You can
open up communication by using silence. You can let the client
know that you are listening by maintaining eye contact, leaning
forward, occasionally saying words like yes, and please
continuethese are signs of respect and generate a feeling of
well-being in the person who is being heard.

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Elements of Counseling Skills

Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Clarifying
This technique involves repeating, synthesizing, or summarizing in other words what
the client has told you. This helps the provider clarify what the client is saying,
and helps the client to feel that he or she has been heard.

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Elements of Counseling Skills

Reflecting and Validating Feelings
This technique involves clarifying the feelings the client expresses in
order to help understand his or her emotions. For example, It
seems to me that you are worried because you suspect that your
husband had sex with other women, and you are afraid that you
will get AIDS. It is helpful to clients to let them know that their
reactions to a situation are normal, and that those feelings are
common to other people in similar situations. You can
communicate that the feelings are valid.

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Elements of Counseling Skills

Giving Clear Information
Before you give any information, it is helpful to ask questions to determine how much
the client already knows. It is important to provide information using words that
the client can understand. Ask clients to repeat the information you have given
them to verify that they understood.

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Elements of Counseling Skills

Arriving at Agreement
This technique involves clarifying and summarizing the decisions that a client has
made during the counseling session.

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Inappropriate Responses in Counseling

Judging: For example, You wouldnt have these problems if you

had acted differently!
Attacking: For example, How could you be that irresponsible?
Denial: For example, Dont worry. Im sure that its nothing
important.
Pity: For example, Poor thing! How terrible that happened!
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Counseling Technique Tools

There are several important tools in the counseling kit that will
enable you to effectively communicate and counsel others:

Asking questions
Active Listening
Encouraging Body Language
Paraphrasing
Summarizing

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Counseling Technique Tools

Asking questions
open and closed - is an important tool in the counseling kit. They can
help a person open up or close them down.
An open ended question (OEQ) is one that is used in order to gather
lots of information you ask it with the intent of getting a long answer.
OEQs are great for:
Starting the information gathering part of the session
Keeping the client talking

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Counseling Technique Tools

Asking Questions, continued
Open-Ended Questions (OEQs) have no correct answer and require an
explanation of sorts. The who-what-where-why-when-how questions your
English teacher taught you to ask? Little did she know youd be using them for
asking questions in counseling!
Here are some good ones:
What brought you in here today?
Do you have an idea about why this keeps happening?
How does that make you feel?
Youll notice that I didnt use why? directly. This is because some people find it
threatening and overwhelming. It implies judgment and it can be asking an
unanswerable question.

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Counseling Technique Tools

Asking Questions, continued
A closed ended question (CEQ) is one used to gather specific information - it
can normally be answered with either a single word or a short phrase. Good
basic counsel skills to know!
Closed Ended Questions (CEQs) are those that can easily be answered with
a yes or a no or brief information.
For example:
What is your name and date of birth?
Did you call the health practitioner to set up a physical?
Where do you work? Occupation?
They sound a little harsh, but are needed for:
1. Getting necessary information
2. To get bring a chatty client back on track or interrupt her/him
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Counseling Technique Tools

Active listening
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows
something. - Wilson Mizner
Is hard but rewarding work. It is so tempting to interrupt, so easy to be distracted.
Active listening happens when you "listen for meaning". The listener says very little
but conveys empathy, acceptance and genuiness. The listener only speaks to find
out if a statement (or two or twenty) has been correctly heard and understood.

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Counseling Technique Tools

Active Listening, continued
So
1. Before the session, make sure your physical needs are taken care of (thirst,
hunger, bathroom, stretching).
2. Look at the speaker. Taking a few notes can keep you on task; mentally put
masking tape across your mouth.
3. Watch your body language! More on this later.
4. Encourage the speaker to continue with short, gentle comments like uh-huh,
really!?, tell me more, etc.
If the person is not normally talkative, you may have to refer to your brief one or
two word notes and ask an open question.
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Counseling Technique Tools

Encouraging Body Language
I speak two languages, Body and English! - Mae West
Developing encouraging body language (BL) can take some
practice. We all have our favorite stance, our default position. At
the same time, communication is 55% body language, 38% tone
and 7% words. So, remember that your client may not remember
what was said, but they will remember how you made them feel.

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Counseling Technique Tools

Encouraging Body Language, continued

Remember the SOLERF method:

S - Squarely face person vs. sitting kitty-corner.

O - use Open posture vs. crossed arms and legs
L - Lean a little toward the person vs. settling back in your chair
E - use Eye contact vs. staring off into deep space
R - Relax, keep it natural vs. sitting like a board
F look friendly vs. neutral or scowling
Take a look at how you are sitting right now. Hmm arms crossed?
Slumped? Bored expression? Looking offside? Not good.
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Counseling Technique Tools

Paraphrasing
When you, the listener, restate succinctly and tentatively what the
speaker said - conveying empathy, acceptance and genuineness.
Since we cannot read our clients mind and weve been given a lot
of extraneous material, its good to learn how to rephrase briefly
and acknowledge that this is what we think the client has said.
For example, lets say the client has gone into a lot of detail about
a traffic jam and the effect on his blood pressure and his resulting
visit with the doctor and the rude nurse and to paraphrase would
be to say in a tentative voice, So after the traffic jam you felt your
blood pressure was up, and the doctor confirmed this?
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Counseling Technique Tools

Paraphrasing, continued

By doing this you are letting your client know that you understand
and, if you dont, are willing to be corrected. AND you are help in
her or him to cut to the chase. What would not be helpful to say
right now is, So you have an anger management problem!? It
may be what you are thinking, but you want the client to keep
talking and for the client to come to that conclusion on her or his
own.

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Counseling Technique Tools

Paraphrasing, continued

By the way, this is a good time to take interest in the tone of your
voice. Be watchful of whether it is
High / low
Loud / soft
Fast / slow
Accommodating / demanding
Light-hearted / gloomy
Moderation in all things including voice.
Remember, the person may not remember what was said, but
they will remember how you made them feel.
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Counseling Technique Tools

Focusing on the Main Points
Summary
In counseling, is when you focus on the main points of a presentation or
session in order to highlight them. At the same time you are giving the
gist, you are checking to see if you are accurate.
Sum-ups happen at the beginning and at the end of a session.
In a beginning summary, you are recalling what happened at the last
meeting.
In an ending summary, you are attempting to condense what has happened
over 40 minutes into a few minutes worth of material.
In both cases your tone needs to imply that you are open to some changes
in perspective. Its important the both the client and you are reading from
the same page.
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Counseling Technique Tools

Summarizing, continued
So lets say counselor Joan is seeing client Mary. Mary has been speaking for
20 minutes she is depressed, failing school, concerned about her boyfriends
dedication to her, and overwhelmed by parents demands. Here is what a
succinct, tentative summary would sound like.
1. You came in today because you are feeling depressed.
2. Your school work is not going well.
3. You worry your boyfriend doesnt love you.
4. You are also unhappy with the amount of stress your parents are putting on
you to get As.
Would you say this is accurate?

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Closure

In todays tough economic times, the effects of extreme financial

problems and agency budget crunches can be seen in all walks of
life and can be experienced by all types of people. The effects can
produce stress related health and mental health problems, anxiety
and depression for both the offender population and staff.
Corrections as we have seen is not immune from these effect either.
As such, it has become increasingly important for correctional staff
to learn these valuable counseling techniques which in turn could
make our jobs easier and provide a safer working environment.

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