Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession: Eighth Edition

Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession
Eighth Edition
Chapter 5
Building Counseling
Relationships
Copyright © 2018, 2013, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives
5.1 Discuss factors that influence the counseling process
such as the seriousness of a problem.
5.2 Compare and contrast the battle for initiative and the
battle for structure in counseling.
5.3 Examine how the physical setting of an office and client
qualities can influence a counseling session.
5.4 Compare and contrast different types of counseling
interviews.
5.5 Describe helpful and unhelpful ways of responding to
clients and the importance of goals in directing counseling.
Building a Counseling Relationship
In the initial stages of rapport building, two struggles take place:
• The battle for structure - involving issues of administrative
control, i.e. scheduling, fees, etc.
• The battle for initiative - concerning the motivation for change
and client responsibility
• It is essential that counselors win the first battle and clients
win the second.
Microskills - counselor responses that can cut across cultural and
theoretical lines to help build a counselor-client relationship.
Factors that Influence the Counseling
Process (1 of 4)
• Seriousness of the presenting problem
• Structure
– Practical guidelines - time limits, action limits, role limits,
and procedural limits
– Professional disclosure statements - include details
about the nature of counseling, expectations,
responsibilities, methods and ethics of counseling.
• Initiative - the motivation to change
– Reluctant client - one who has been referred by a third
party and is frequently “unmotivated to seek help” (Ritchie,
1986, p. 516).
Process (2 of 4)
– Resistant client - a person in counseling who is unwilling,
unready, or opposed to change (Ritchie, 1986).
– Direct persuasion techniques employed in counseling
include “foot in the door” and “door in the face”
– Confrontation - the counselor points out to the client what
the client is doing, i.e. inconsistencies.
– Metaphors - can be used to teach and reduce threat levels.
– Mattering - the belief that as humans we are important and
significant to the world around us and to others in our lives.
• The physical setting
– Eight common characteristics of space and their
potential impact:
Process (3 of 4)
 Accessories (e.g., artwork, plants)
 Color (i.e., hue, value, intensity)
 Furniture and room design (i.e., form, line, color, texture, scale)
 Lighting (i.e., artificial, natural)
 Smell (i.e., plants, ambient fragrances, general odors)
 Sound (i.e., loudness, frequency)
 Texture (i.e., floors, walls, ceilings, furniture)
 Thermal conditions (temperature, relative humidity, air velocity)
– Proxemics - the distance between counselor and client
 Average range of comfort is between 30 - 39 inches, with
chairs set at a 90 degree angle.
Process (4 of 4)
• Client qualities
– YAVIS - young, attractive, verbal, intelligent, successful.
These tend to be the most successful candidates for
counseling.
– HOUNDs - homely, old, unintelligent, nonverbal, and
disadvantaged; or DUDs - dumb, unintelligent,
disadvantaged. These are usually less successful
candidates for counseling.
• Counselor qualities
– Self-awareness, honesty, congruence, ability to
communicate and knowledge;
– Expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness.
Types of Initial Interviews
• Two types of first interview:
– Initiated by clients
– Initiated by counselors
• Information-oriented first interview
– Includes probes, closed questions, requests for
clarification
• Relationship-oriented first interview
– Includes restatement, reflection of feelings, summary of
feelings, and acknowledgement of nonverbal behavior
Conducting the Initial Interview
• Rapport - a genuine interest in and accepting of the client
• Two important micro skills for rapport building are:
– Attending behavior
– Client-observation skills
Conducting the Initial Interview: Empathy
• Empathy - the counselor’s ability to enter the client’s
phenomenal world, to experience the client’s world as if it were
the counselor’s own, without ever losing the as if quality
– Culturally sensitive empathy - ability to perceive the
cultural frame of reference from which the client operates.
– Primary empathy - ability to respond in such a way that it is
apparent to both client and counselor that the counselor has
understood the client’s major themes.
– Advanced empathy - a process of helping a client explore
themes, issues, and emotions new to his or her awareness.
Conducting the Initial Interview: Verbal
and Nonverbal Behavior
• Attentiveness - the amount of verbal and nonverbal behavior shown
to the client
• 5 nonverbal skills involved in initial attending, known as SOLER:
– Face the client squarely
– Adopt an open posture
– Lean toward the client
– Appropriate eye contact
– Relax and be comfortable
• Touch should be appropriately employed, applied briefly and sparingly,
and used to communicate concern. Counselors should use touch
cautiously.
Conducting the Initial Interview:
Unhelpful Interview Behavior
• Four major actions that usually block counselor-client
communication and should be generally avoided include:
– Advice-giving
– Lecturing
– Excessive questioning
– Storytelling by the counselor
Unhelpful Interview Behaviors: Advice
Giving and Lecturing
• Advice-giving:
– The most controversial of the 4 behaviors, and ultimately
disempowers the client.
– In emergency situations (crisis counseling), advice giving
can be appropriate for the client’s immediate welfare and
safety - the counselor must observe whether the client is
asking for advice or reflecting through self-questioning.
• Lecturing:
– Known also as preaching; a disguised form of advice-giving
– Sets up a power-struggle between counselor and client that
neither can win
Unhelpful Interview Behaviors: Excessive
Questioning and Storytelling
• Excessive questioning
– A common mistake of many counselors
– Creates for the client a sense of being interrogated
– The client has little chance to take initiative and may
become guarded.
• Storytelling by the counselor
– Few counselors can use storytelling to benefit clients.
– Most counselors should avoid storytelling because the
story usually focuses attention on the counselor
instead of the client and distracts from problem-solving.
Exploration and the Identification of Goals
(1 of 2)
• Goals are part of daily living but are often elusive. If not careful,
goals can become unfocused, unrealistic, and uncoordinated.
– Unfocused goals - not identified, too broad, or not
prioritized.
– Unrealistic goals - may include happiness, perfection,
progress, being number one, and self-actualization. They
have merit but are not easily obtained or sustained.
– Uncoordinated goals - fall into either really
uncoordinated (incompatibility between goals and client) or
seemingly uncoordinated (appear to be uncoordinated but
really are not).
Exploration and the Identification of Goals
(2 of 2)
Dryer and Vriend (1977) emphasize 7 specific criteria for

judging effective goals in counseling:
1. Goals are mutually agreed on by client and counselor.
2. Goals are specific.
3. Goals are relevant to self-defeating behavior.
4. Goals are achievement and success oriented.
5. Goals are quantifiable and measurable.
6. Goals are behavioral and observable.
7. Goals are understandable and can be restated clearly.
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