Practice exam questions – 1

Demonstration that alternative settings require different counselling skills.

Counsellors and psychologists

Shifting clients away from negative topics.

False memories activate different parts of the brain than true memories.

Observe yours and the client's verbal and non-verbal behaviour/ Anticipate individual and multicultural differences./ Carefully and selectively feedback observations to the client as discussion topics.

In need of special help.

Considerate

Gives the client a sense of personal power in the interview.

A complex of skills requiring observation and listening.

Mutuality is not a legitimate focus area.

Both focus on providing a new way of thinking for the client.

Related past personal life experience of the interviewer./ Interviewer observations, opinions, or feelings toward the client./ Begins with an "I" statement.

Define the problem, generate alternatives, choose to act on one alternative.

Stage 2 of the five-stage interview structure, in which of the following theories?, Brief Counselling

Interviewer education/ genuineness of the client

Observe and follow professional standards and practice ethically. Particularly important issues for beginning interviewers are: competence, informed consent, confidentiality, power, and social justice.

Client trust and understanding of the interviewing process will increase. Clients will feel more empowered in a more egalitarian session. When you work toward social justice, you contribute to problem prevention in addition to healing work in the interview.

Base interviewer behaviour on an ethical approach with an awareness of the many issues of diversity. Include the multiple dimensions from the RESPECTFUL model.

Both counsellor and clients will appreciate, gain respect, and learn from increasing knowledge in ethics and multicultural competence. The counsellor will have a solid foundation for a lifetime of personal and professional growth

Religion/spirituality, Economic/class background, Sexual identity, Personal style and education, Ethnic/racial identity, Chronological/ lifespan challenges, Trauma, Family background, Unique physical characteristics, Location of residence/ language difference

Help clients discover and rediscover their strengths through wellness assessment. Find strengths and positive assets in the clients and in their support system. Identify multiple dimensions of wellness

Clients who are aware of their strengths and resources can face their difficulties and discuss problem resolution from a positive foundation

Support your client with individually and culturally appropriate visuals, vocal quality, verbal tracking, and body language

Clients will talk more freely and respond openly, particularly around topics to which attention is given Depending on the individual, clients will make fewer eye contact breaks, a smoother vocal tone, and a more complete story (fewer topic jumps), and more comfortable body language.

Begin open questions with often usual who, what, when, where, why. Closed questions may start with do, is, or are. Could, can, or would questions are considered open, but have the additional advantage of being somewhat closed, thus giving more power to the client, who can more easily say that he or she doesn't want to respond.

Clients will give more detail and talk more in response to open questions. Closed questions provide specific information but may close off client talk. Effective questions encourage more focused client conversations with more pertinent detail and less wandering. Could, would, and can questions are often the most open of all.

Observe yours and the client's verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Anticipate individual and multi-cultural differences in non-verbal and verbal behaviour. Carefully and selectively feed observations back to the client as topics for discussion.

Observations provide specific data validating or invalidating what is happening in the session and provide guidance for use of various micro-skills and strategies. The smoothly flowing interview will often demonstrate movement symmetry or complementarity. Movement dissynchrony provides a clear clue that you are not "in tune" with the client.

Encourage with short responses the help clients keep talking. They may be verbal (repeating key works and short statements) or non-verbal (head nods and smiling)

Clients will elaborate on the topic, particularly when encouragers and restatements are used in a questioning tone of voice.

Shorten, clarify the essence of what has been said, but be sure to use the client's main words when you paraphrase. Paraphrases are often fed back to the client in a questioning tone of voice.

Clients will feel heard. They will tend to give more detail without repeating the exact same story. If a paraphrase is inaccurate, clients will have an opportunity to correct the counsellor.

Summarise client comments and integrative thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Similar to paraphrase but used over a longer time span.

Clients will feel heard and often learn how the many parts of important stories are integrated. The summary tends to facilitate a more centred and focused discussion. The summary also provides a more coherent transition from one topic to the next or as a way to begin and end a full session.

Experience the client's world as if you were the client. Understand his or her key issues and feed them back to clarify experience. This requires attending skills and using the important key words of the client but distilling and shortening the main ideas. Empathy is best assessed by the client's reaction to a statement.

Clients will feel understood and engage in more depth in exploring their issues.

Interviewer responses give back to the client less than what the client says and perhaps even distort what has been said. In this case, the listening or influencing skills are used inappropriately.

Skill is used inappropriately and subtracts from client's experience. Clients will not feel understood.

Interviewer responses are roughly interchangeable with those of the client. The interviewer is able to say back accurately what the client has said.

Clients will feel understood and engage in more depth and exploring their issues. Skilled intentional competence with the basic listening sequence demonstrates basic empathy.

Interviewer adds meaning and feelings beyond those originally expressed by client.

Clients will reach a better understanding of their own issues and engage in more depth in exploring these issues.

Identify key emotions of a client and feed them back to clarify affective experience. With some clients, the brief acknowledgement of feeling may be more appropriate. Often combined with paraphrasing and summarising.

Clients will experience and understand their emotional state more fully and talk in more depth about feelings. They may correct the interviewer's reflection with a more accurate descriptor.

Select and practice all elements of the basic listening sequence - open and closed questions, encouraging, paraphrasing, reflection of feeling, and summarising. These are supplemented by attending behaviour and client observation skills.

Clients will discuss their stories, problems, or concerns, including the key facts, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Clients will feel their stories have been heard.

Initiate the session. Rapport and structuring. "Hello, what would you like to talk about today?"

Clients will feel at ease with an understanding of the key ethical issues and the purpose of the interview. They may also know you more completely as a person and professional.

Gather data, draw out client's stories, concerns, problems or issues. "What's your concern?" "What are your strengths and resources?"

Clients will share thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and their stories in detail as well as strengths and resources.

Set goals mutually. "What do you want to happen?"

Clients will discuss and define goals, new ways of thinking, desired feeling states, and desired behaviour changes. They may learn how to live more effectively with situations that cannot be changed (rape, death, an accident, an illness).

Explore and create, brainstorm and examine alternatives, confront client incongruities and conflict, restory. "What are we going to do about it" "Can we generate new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving?"

Clients may re-examine individual goals in new ways, solve problems from at least generated alternatives, and start the move towards new stories and actions

Conclude, plan for generalising interview learning to 'real life' and eventual termination of the interview and series of sessions ("will you do it?")

Clients will demonstrate change in behaviour, thoughts, and feelings in daily life outside the interview.

Supportively challenge the client: 1. Listen, observe, and note client conflict, mixed messages, and discrepancies in verbal and non-verbal behaviour. 2. Point out external and internal discrepancies by feeding them back to the client, usually through the listening skills. 3. Evaluate how the client responds whether it leads to client movement or change. If the client does not change, the interviewer flexes intentionally and tries another skill.

Clients will respond to the confrontation of discrepancies and conflict with new ideas, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and these will be measurable on the 5-point Client Change Scale. Again, if no change occurs, listen. T en try an alternative style of confrontation.

Use selective attention and focus the interview on the client, problem/concern, significant others (partner/spouse, family, friends), a mutual "we" focus, the interviewer, or the cultural/environmental context (RESPECTFUL). You may also focus on what is going on in the here and now of the interview.

Clients will focus their conversation or story on the dimensions selected by the interviewer. As the interviewer brings in new focuses, the story is elaborated from multiple perspectives.

Meanings are close to core experiencing. Encourage clients to explore their own meanings and values in more depth from their own perspective. Questions to elicit meaning are often a vital first step. A reflection of meaning looks very much like a paraphrase, but focuses beyond what a client says. Often the words "meaning", "values", and "goals" appear in the discussion.

The client will find another perspective or meaning of a story, issue, or problem. The new perspective could be generated by a theory used by the interviewer, from linking ideas or information, or by simply looking at the situation afresh.

Provide the client with a new perspective, frame of reference or way of thinking about issues. Interpretations/reframes may come from your observations, they may be based on varying theoretical orientations to the helping field, or they may link critical ideas together.

The client may find another perspective or meaning of a story, issue, or problem. The new perspective could have generated by a theory used by the interviewer, from linking ideas or information, or by simply looking at the situation afresh.

As the interviewer, share your own related past personal life experience, here-and-now observations or feelings towards the client, or opinions about the future. Self-disclosure often starts with an "I" statement. Here-and-now feelings toward the client can be powerful and should be used carefully.

The client is encouraged to self-disclose in more depth and may develop a more egalitarian interviewing relationship with the interviewer. The client may feel more comfortable in the relationship and find a new solution relating to the counsellor's self-disclosure.

Present the client with clear information on how interviewer believes the client is thinking, feeling, or behaving and how significant others may view them or their performance.

Clients may improve or change their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours based on the interviewer's feedback.

Explore specific alternatives and the logical positive and negative concrete consequence of each possibility with the client. "if you do this..., then...."

Clients may change thoughts, feelings, and behaviours through better anticipation of the consequences of their actions. Through exploring the positives and negatives of each possibility, the client is more involved in the process of decision making.

Share specific information with the client (e.g., career information, choice of major, where to go for community assistance and services). Offer advice or opinions on how to resolve issues and provide useful suggestions for personal change. Teach the clients specifics that may be useful - helping them develop a wellness plan, teaching them how to use micro-skills in interpersonal relationships, educating them on multicultural issues and discrimination.

If information and ideas are given sparingly and effectively, clients will use them to act in new, more positive ways. Psycho-education that is provided in a timely way and involves clients in the process can be a powerful motivator for change.

Direct clients to follow specific actions. Directives are important in broader strategies such as assertiveness or social skills training or specific exercises such as imagery, thought stopping, journaling, or relaxation training. They are often important when assigning homework for the client.

Clients will make positive progress when they listen to and follow the directives and engage in new, more positive thinking, feeling, or behaving.

Integrate the micro-skills into a well-formed interview and generalise the skills to situations beyond the training session or classroom.

Developing counsellors will integrate skills as part of their natural style. Each of us will vary in our choices, but increasingly we will know what we are doing, how to flex when what we are doing is ineffective, and what to expect in the interview as a result of our efforts.

As you work with clients, identify your natural style, add to it, and think through your approach to interviewing and counselling. Examine your own preferred skill usage and what you do in a session. Integrate learning from theory and practice in interviewing, counselling, and psychotherapy into your own skill set.

As a developing counsellor, you will identify and build on your natural style. You will commit to a lifelong process of constantly learning about theory and practice while evaluating and examining your behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and deeply held meanings.

draw out the client's story and strengths via questioning, encouraging, paraphrasing, reflection of feeling, and summarisation. The sequence used in multiple settings, not just in interviewing and counselling.

helps you evaluate where the client is in the change process.

1. Denial 2. Partial examination 3. Acceptance and recognition but no change 4. Generation of a new solution 5. Transcendence.

you will be able to determine the impact of your use of skills and the creation of the new. Suggest new ways that you might try to clarify and support the change process through more confrontation or the use of another skill that might facilitate growth and development.

this is a more poetic and positive way to describe the human growth process. Change is a creative action. Tillich's concept of the new helps make confrontation and change more fluid and strength producing.

an explicit confrontation can be recognised by the model sentences, "on one hand... but on the other hand... how do you put those two together?" in addition, many interviewer statements contain implicit confrontations that can be helpful in promoting client growth and development movement. For example, you may summarise client conversation, pointing out discrepancies, or use an influencing skill such as the interpretation/reframe, feedback, or other strategies to produce change.

seeking to help our clients change their ways of thinking and behaving.

1. Denial 2. Partial acceptance of reality/bargaining/ anger 3. Acceptance and recognition 4. Generation of a new solution and 5. Development of a new, larger, and more inclusive constructs, patterns, or behaviours.

they are a critical tool in determining how the client interprets the world. it allows you to see your impact on the client. Use these data to adjust your microskill or interviewing technique.

A skill that facilitates multiple telling of a client story to help find new creative views for re-storying.

Stresses the importance of the individual client/ Expands awareness of social/ contexts

They outline the client's social connections

In any interaction with a client, first attend to and determine the client's frame of reference, then assess her or his reaction before using your influencing skills. Finally, check out the client reaction to your use of the skill.

The influencing and attending skill may be classified from low to high degrees of influence. Encouragers and paraphrasing are considered relatively low in influence, whereas confrontation and directives are considered more influential.

The "swing skills" of the interpersonal influence continuum are focusing and open and closed questions. They provide a framework for determining the topic of conversation while keeping a balance between influencing and attending skills.

Indicating your thoughts and feelings to a client constitutes self-disclosure, which necessitates the following: 1.Use personal pronouns ("I" statements). 2. Use a verb for content or feeling ("I feel . . ." "I think . . ."). 3. Use an object coupled with adverb and adjective descriptors ("I feel happy about your being able to assert yourself . . ."). 4. Express your feelings appropriately. Self-disclosure tends to be most effective if it is genuine, timely, and phrased in the present tense. Keep your self-disclosure brief. At times, consider sharing short stories from your own life.

Feedback accurate data on how you or others view the client. Remember the following: (These guidelines are useful for all influencing skills) 1. The client should be in charge. 2. Focus on strengths. 3. Be concrete and specific. 4. Be nonjudgmental. 5. As appropriate, provide here-and-now feedback. 6. Keep feedback lean and precise. 7. Check out how your feedback was received.

This skill predicts the probable results of a client's action, in five steps: 1. Listen to make sure you understand the situation and how it is understood by the client. 2. Encourage the client to think about positive and negative consequences of a decision. 3. Provide your data on the positive and negative consequences of a decision in a nonjudgmental manner. 4. Summarise the positives and negatives. 5. Let the client decide what action to take.

Many times clients need the counsellor's knowledge and expertise around key life issues. The counsellor knows the community and resources available. He or she also knows the likely pattern and key issues of a divorce, the death of a family member, or other life issue. Psycho-education is a more systematic way to teach clients of new life possibilities; this may range from training in communication skills to developing a successful wellness plan.

Involve your client with the choice of directives, even to the point of telling her or him what is to happen and what to expect as a result. Appropriately assertive body language, vocal tone, and eye contact are important, as are clear, concrete verbal expressions and checking out the degree of client participation.