Michelle Gibbs

Introduction and
Module 1
 Designed to assist you in mastering and
evaluating interviewing skills and introduce
additional skills
 Emphasis on skills and techniques used in
direct practice with clients
 Exploration of essential attitudes and values
 Practical and experiential in nature
Shebib, Bob. Choices:Practical
Interviewing and Counseling Skills
(6th). (Fifth edition) Prentice Hall, Allyn
and Bacon, Canada 2017.
 late assignment policy as per outline
 Evaluation:

1. Assignment 1: Applying Four Phases 20%

2. Assignment 2: Social Stories: 20%
3. Assignment 3:Video/reflection exercise 20%
4. In class participation assignments 10%
5. Final Exam (in class) 30%
Objective:
Students will review the phases of the
interview and demonstrate basic skills
used.
 Ending

Action

Beginning

Preliminary
Common Objectives of Phases
1. Forming and sustaining working
relationships
2. Establishing open honest and
productive communication
3. Evaluation ensures the overall
satisfaction of all participants with the
pace and it’s results
This phase focuses on two central tasks:
1. Preparing the Agency Setting
2. Preparing the Social Service Worker.

Note: This is all the work that you complete

Before you meet the client!
 Have un-crowded waiting rooms
 Allow for space that is private and
confidential
 Ensure clients are greeted in a warm
and friendly manner
 Provide for the needs of children
Be wheelchair accessible
Have posters & art that don’t violate
the values, religion, or culture of
the agency’s clients
Have up-to-date reading material for
clients who are waiting
 private, sound proof, free of interruption
 ensure opportunities to focus
 manageable for cognitive and physical
disabilities
 should be located near the population
served
 Agency should meet client’s needs
 Ringer on phone should be turned off
 Ensure others know you are interviewing
 Ask for calls to be held or activate v/m
 If you are interrupted - apologize
 Should be comfortable enough to sit for
long periods of time – 1 hour
 Height of furniture should reflect respect
- eye level
 Sit about 4 to 7 feet away (1-2 m) and at
a good angle
 Desks create barriers
 Try out the seat meant for the client –
what do you see?
 Seating should be flexible and mobile
 Nature of clientele
should be
considered

 Teens and children

may mean less
formal arrangement
 Family portrait
 Motivational posters
 Degrees and diplomas
 Bookcase with extensive professional
books and journals
 Clock (easily checked without being
obvious)
 Pictures (family, pets). Consider carefully.
Questions will come.

 Agency Policy
 Uncluttered
 Neutral?
 Some clients will have a history with the
agency
 You will have access to potentially
helpful information about the client.
 Can alert counselors to past incidents,
need to take precautions as well as a
history of service
 Can speed the intake process
 Be careful to maintain an open mind
and avoid prejudgment
 Particularly prior assessments of
personality and manner
“Client was defensive and guarded.
He appeared unusually resistant to
explore his feelings”
Create a plan
◦ Think about questions you want to ask
◦ Stay open and flexible
◦ Reading the client file
◦ Seek facts/do background research (e.g. Fredrick's
Ataxia)
Tune in
◦ Be aware that self disclosure may need to happen
(client’s story may be close to yours).
◦ Tune in - think about what client’s might express
◦ Examine your own readiness
Self examine
◦ Ask yourself about yourself
◦ Are you ready to work with this client? Biases?
Objectivity?
Objective:
to negotiate a working relationship that
is goal directed and based on trust and
mutual understanding of expectations.
› Negotiating relationship
› Exploration for understanding
› Active listening (e.g. encouraging,
paraphrasing, etc.)
› Promoting core conditions
› Defining the relationship
› Strengths focus (search
for strengths and tell client)
 A client’s reason for seeking
assistance is revealed right at the
beginning of your work together?
 Your thoughts?
 Relationship is time limited and based on a
contract outlining objectives and terms
 Past experiences with needing and getting
help shape perceptions and expectations
Counselors are often in a position of
authority and client’s past comes
into play
Clients can be voluntary or involuntary
(more resistant at times about
needing help)
Acquiring and deepening
understanding of the Client’s situation
or problem
› Client’s tell their stories, describe their
feelings and explore their problems and
dilemmas
› Counselors are to prepare to listen and
learn
› From preliminary work comes ability to
predict themes and patterns but don’t
make assumptions
› Appreciate the unique nature of each client
› Using basic skills for this exploration
› BLS comes in very handy here
 Gaining a deepened understanding can
be empowering for clients
 Aiding clients in organizing their thinking is
done by systematic questioning to identify
feelings and mirror them back with
empathic statements
 The unburdening process can be cathartic
 Be sensitive to individual pacing needs
 A time of change
 Solving problems
 Managing feelings
 Set goals
 Explore alternatives strategies
 Assist clients to gain insight and make
discoveries about their situation (e.g. asking
questions and probing for detail).
› Goal setting and action planning
› Helping clients change behavior, feelings or
perceptions
› Teaching (e.g. communicating skills through role-
playing).
› Giving information
› Supporting
› Confronting (giving feedback, pointing out
incongruities)
› Immediacy
 Spontaneous insight comes from
exploration – BLS (I.e., QEPRS)
 Insight from provision of information,
ideas or perspectives – distortions are
challenged
 Assisting with goal setting is the basis for
action
 Development of new strategies
 Cues indicate less anxiety about
counseling
 Increase of acceptance of feelings and
more honest expression
 Diminished negativism, self doubt and
blaming of others
 Increase in responsibility for self
 Increased empathy for others
 Starts in the beginning with definition of
nature and limits of the relationship
 Agreement around activities and goals
becomes the target of termination
 Assess what has been accomplished
and what is left to be done
 A time to evaluate the counseling
relationship
› Ending the counselling relationship
› Referring to other resources
› Giving information (books, pamphlets, etc.)
› Supporting (termination can be difficult for
many clients)
› Make sure you fully examine how the client is
feeling about termination?
 Goals reached
 Time limited
 Client has sufficient capacity to work on
their own
 Lack of time or competence – make
appropriate referral
 Lack of objectivity – make referral
 Situational Factors: Illness, Moving, End of
Practicum
 No evidence that counselling is working –
terminate or refer
 Evoke feelings of loss for both the
client and the counselor
 Clients who struggle with transitions
may experience the ending as a
crisis
 Helpers can feel a loss due to a reliance on
helping relationships to meet needs for
intimacy or because it reminds them of
other losses
 Terminations can be a source of growth,
celebration and empowerment for clients
as they look back on achievement and
forward with new perspectives
Core Conditions – unconditional positive regard,
empathy, genuineness (Carl Rogers)

1.Genuineness/Congruence—genuineness, one’s
behavior congruent with emotions. Transparency.
2.Empathy—accurate ability to view the world from
client’s perspective
3.Unconditional Positive Regard—acceptance,
caring. Accepting the client for who they are without
any “conditions.” Non-judgmental.
 “Respect the client, but reject the
behavior”

What does this mean to you and how will

this help you in your professional role?
 You are a placement student and you
smoke.
 You are running a group to help clients stop
smoking.
 Your supervisor asks you to deny you smoke
if clients ask you.
 How would you handle this situation? How
could this affect your relationship with your
clients?
 Counselling Potatoes?
http://www.markredwood.co.uk/articles/c
ounselling-potatoes
Active listening: Attending, Silence, Questions,
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Empathy
• Allow appropriate expressions of anger
and resistance
• Negotiate working contracts
 Visual/eye contact
 Vocal qualities
 Verbal tracking
 Attentive body language
“Attending is easiest if you focus your
attention on the client rather than on
yourself.”
 Closed minded listeners respect only those that
agree with them.
 Open minded listeners are willing to explore new
ideas and are secure enough to hear different
opinions

Active Listening:
Most people do not listen with the intent to
understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They
are either speaking or preparing to speak.
- Stephen Covey
 Being Patient
 Encouraging Trust
 Controlling Noise
 Staying Focused
 Controlling Assumptions
 Managing Personal Reactions
 Knowing that Listening Doesn’t Mean
Agreeing
 Being aware of Blind Spots
 The second major active listening skill
 The personal meaning of silence needs
to be considered
 We have need to balance our verbal
agility with an equally strong capacity
for silence
 Attended Silence is a skill – eye contact,
self discipline, focus
Video: Some thoughts on Use of Silence in
Counselling Sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jNZe
jN5yDI
1. Client is thinking
2. Client is confused
3. Client is encountering painful feelings
4. Client is dealing with issues of trust
5. Silence is the client’s usual way/nature
6. Client has reached closure
1. Rigidity and use of a “one sized its all” approach
2. Insufficient attention to the counsellor-client relationship
3. Advice Giving
4. Absence of core conditions – empathy, unconditional positive
regard, and genuineness
5. Missing the opportunities offered by attention to the nonverbal
channel
6. Loss of objectivity and judgmental responses
7. Pacing problems (too fast, too slow, inappropriate timing of
responses.
8. Inappropriate use of self-disclosure (too much, too little, poorly
timed)
9. Rescuing, false reassurance, minimizing problems
10. Cultural insensitivity