Directions
Step 1: Select an 8 to 10-minute segment of a recorded counseling session and upload it to your Kaltura account at watch.liberty.edu. Save the video as your name and presentation number (e.g., Jane Doe, First Case Presentation Clip). Ensure the video is set to private and then publish it to your course and section under Channels. Note: All videos must be deleted on or before the last day of your course.
You will also upload your full session to the channel. Save the video with your name, presentation number, and type of video (clip or full session) (e.g., Jane Doe, First Case Presentation Full Session)
Step 2:
– Complete the Verbatim and Reflection. Watch the video segment and type a verbatim transcript with timestamp of the video (recall the verbatim in the exact word-for-word content including “umm,” “err” and other filler words).
– Once you have fully transcribed your clip, for every counselor statement/response, with the exception of paralanguage, identify the SPECIFIC Counseling Skill used and rationale for why you used it (use the Comprehensive Counseling Skills List at the end of the template to see the list of all the skills). If your statement in the session does not align with any of the counseling skills, then your statement may be “Non-Facilitative” and you should label it as such (see description of “Non-Facilitative Statements in the Comprehensive Counseling Skills List).
– In the Rework column, provide a rework of the skill that demonstrates either a more polished reflection or a more advanced reflection and identify the reworked counseling skill (using the Comprehensive Counseling Skills list).
– In the Conceptualization and Personalization column, include comments regarding conceptualization and/or counselor self-awareness. Conceptualization may include a deeper insight into why the reworked skill would have been more facilitative, and personalization involves aspects of countertransference or personal insight regarding that moment of counseling.
– EVERY column should be completed for EVERY counselor statement/response.
Step 3: Complete the Skills Competency Self-Assessment (located at the end of this template) regarding the skills you demonstrated in this clip.
Step 4: Complete Session and Skills Reflection, which includes four discussion questions. This should be between 1-2 pages in length.
Step 1:
Student Name: Click or tap here to enter text.
Faculty Name: Click or tap here to enter text.
Start Time of Clip: Click or tap here to enter text.
End Time of Clip: Click or tap here to enter text.
Remember to set the video to private and then publish it to your course and section under Channels.
Step 2: Verbatim and Reflection
Example
Timestamp | Speaker | Verbatim | Basic Skill and Rationale | Rework | Conceptualization and/or Personalization | Faculty Feedback |
25:53 | Counselor | Yeah that’s- that makes sense the way you were explaining it. You don’t- you don’t want the conflict don’t introduce the topic. Um now what about relationships with friends? | Paraphrasing and Open Question: I wanted let the client know he is being heard and understood, and I asked about friends because I think this will be a goal for the client. | Paraphrase: It sounds like conflict can be really uncomfortable to you. | I could have delved deeper into the conflict topic, but I missed it because of my planned direction, as social relationships were mentioned in the last session. | |
26:05 | Client | Umm.. I don’t have a lot of friends actually-I’m pretty bummed about it | ||||
26:11 | Counselor | Oh, yeah? | Non-Facilitative | Reflection of Feeling: Sounds like you wish that could be different. | “Oh, yeah” is a habit I have when I’m not sure what else to say |
Timestamp | Speaker | Verbatim | Basic Skill and Rationale | Rework | Conceptualization and/or Personalization | Faculty Feedback |
Step 3: Demonstration of Skills
This is a summary of advanced counseling skills. Please rate the following skills items as they have been demonstrated in the clip.
This section is not intended as a checklist of skills for you to demonstrate in your video clip. It is intended to demonstrate your awareness and competency in identifying opportunities for advanced skills. You will be graded on your written awareness rather than your use of the skill.
List of Skills and Competencies Please see the Practicum/Internship Comprehensive Counseling Skills List at the bottom of this document for descriptions of these advanced skills | Timestamp Where Skill was Demonstrated | Timestamp of Missed Opportunity to Demonstrate this Skill | Student Explanation/ Rationale of Why the Skill Was/Was Not Used or Why it Could Have Been Therapeutic to Use This Skill | Faculty Feedback |
Facilitation of Therapeutic Environment: Emotional Empathy | ||||
Non-Verbal Skill: Attentive Silence | ||||
Advanced Skill: Broaching Culture | ||||
Advanced Skill: Boundary Setting | ||||
Advanced Skill: Challenging/Confrontation | ||||
Advanced Skill: Immediacy | ||||
Advanced Skill: Normalizing | ||||
Advanced Skill: Open-ended Questions | ||||
Advanced Skill: Psychoeducation | ||||
Advanced Skill: Reflection of Mood | ||||
Advanced Skill: Reframe | ||||
Advanced Skill: Scaling | ||||
Advanced Skill: Structuring/Focusing Counseling | ||||
Implementation of Theoretical Intervention: | ||||
Implementation of Theoretical Intervention: |
Step 4: Session & Skills Reflection
This section should be 1-2 pages in length. (Answer the questions in regular format – not bold format)
Question 1: What were some of the ‘in-session’ struggles/questions you experienced?
Question 2: As you review the skills you demonstrated in this clip, what do you believe were some of your strengths? Include specific examples.
Question 3: As you review your clip, how was your theoretical orientation demonstrated? How could you have better demonstrated your theoretical orientation?
Question 4: As you review the skills you demonstrated in this clip, using specific examples, what are your areas for growth? How do you plan to attend to these areas of growth?
Practicum/Internship Comprehensive Counseling Skills List
The following list provides descriptions for each of the skills mentioned above. Please use this for clarification, if needed.
*The skills in this box are primarily non-verbal (communicated through body posture and vocal tone) but are critical for the development of a working counseling relationship and the therapeutic process. While these skills are not labeled on the Verbatim, students should still consider the integration and use of these dispositional skills.
Facilitation of Therapeutic Environment and Counseling Relationship
Empathy and Caring: Expresses accurate empathy and care, attunement, and a sense of safe presence and attention. This is communicated through physical posture, vocal tone, eye contact, facial expression, and attention.
Non-Judgmental Acceptance and Unconditional Positive Regard: Expresses open acceptance of the client’s experience and worldview free of verbal or non-verbal judgment; accepts the client as they are in the moment; expresses acceptance and unbiased perspective even if the counselor disagrees with the client’s thoughts, feelings or actions.
Respect and Compassion: Offers respect verbally and non-verbally to clients in culturally appropriate ways and expresses compassion for the client.
Nonverbal Skills
SOLER: Facilitative body posture in which the counselor is Squarely facing the client, maintains Open posture, Leans in, maintains appropriate Eye contact, and appears Relaxed
Eye Contact, Distance from Client, and Body Posture: Appropriately uses a direct gaze with occasional breaks, which may be intentional; presents open and relaxed posture; leaning in and back as appropriate; positions self at an appropriate distance from client.
Rate of Speech, Pacing of Reflection, and Voice Tone: Voice tone matches the client and or appropriate to the session’s context; effectively paces reflections in both the frequency of verbal statements and the rate of speech in which the reflection is delivered.
Facial Expressions and Gestures: Facial movements and expressions are congruent with the client and any verbal reflection provided; facial expressions and body gestures express interest and connection with client, and are appropriately matched for the content of the session.
Attentive silence: Offers effective presence while providing the client with time to reflect; used to communicate empathy and thinking.
Comprehensive Verbal Counseling Skills List
*These skills are to be identified and labeled on the verbatim. Definitions, explanations, and examples of each skill can be found at the end of this document.
Adapted from Ivey, A. E. (2009). Intentional interviewing and counseling: Facilitating client development in a multicultural society (7th ed.). Brooks/Cole.
Basic Verbal Counseling Skills
*These skills are the focus at the Practicum level and are considered benchmark skills. Students must be able to accurately identify and demonstrate these skills at the Proficient level by the end of Practicum. Internship I and II students should be consistently using these skills at a Proficient and Advanced level.
Defining Goals
Defining Problems
Door Openers/ Invitational Statements
Minimal Encourager
Open Ended Question
Paraphrase/ Reflection of Content
Reflection of Feeling
Reflection of Meaning
Repetition of Keywords/ Phrases
Summary
Advanced Verbal Counseling Skills
*These skills may be used at the Practicum level but are more consistent with Internship I and II counseling work. These advanced skills should be grounded within theory and therapeutic rationale.
Attentive Silence
Broaching Culture
Challenge/ Confrontation
Emotional Empathy
Identifying/ Building Strengths
Immediacy
Intervention/ Directive
Boundary Setting
Normalizing
Psychoeducation
Reflection of Mood
Reframe
Scaling
Structuring/ Focusing Counseling
Group Skills
Group Work Skill of Blocking
Group Work Skills of Linking
Additional Skills
*These skills are statements that counselors frequently utilize but are not considered basic or advanced. These skills are primarily used in managing aspects of the counseling process, dialoguing with the client, and facilitating the counseling relationship.
Attending to Special Needs
Clarifying/ Checkout
Close Ended Question
Facilitative Humor
Social Greeting
Non-Facilitative Statements
If a counselor-in-training’s statement does not fall into one of the skills above, then the statement might be non-facilitative, and students should label it as such. A Non-Facilitative statement is a statement by the counselor-in-training that does not serve a therapeutic purpose and is counter to the role and function of the counselor. This includes advice-giving, excessive self-disclosure, or evaluative/judgmental comments or statements. Examples of Non-Facilitative statements include statements like: “You know, what she said really wasn’t that bad”, or “I think you should probably talk with your sister about this before you make a decision”, or “I went through something just like that and I can tell you how it turned out for me”. Other Non-Facilitative statements are reactionary or do not serve a therapeutic purpose. Examples of this might be “wow, I can’t believe that” or “oh my gosh!”.
Verbal Counseling Skills Definitions, Explanations, and Examples
*Provided in alphabetical order
Attending to Client’s or Counselor’s Special Needs Attending to Special Needs are used when the client is cold, thirsty, needs a tissue, restroom, permission slip, etc. For example, “I need to step out for a bathroom break for just a moment”, or “I’d like to offer you a cup of water”.
Attentive Silence While not a verbal skill, Attentive Silence is a mindful decision from the counselor to intentionally remain silent after the client has shared. The purpose of Attentive Silence allows the client to take a break, for the counselor and client to sit with the power and significance of what was just shared, or to encourage the client to reflect on what was shared and then share more. Attentive silence creates space for insight to occur and can last from several moments to minutes. Counselors use self-control, patience, and understanding to manage the tension that Attentive Silence creates. When using Attentive Silence, counselors must maintain connected non-verbals and a disposition of unconditional positive regard for the client. SOLER skills should be implemented, and the counselor should maintain a calm, composed, and connected presence with the client during silence. For example, Client: “I just HATE him for that!” Counselor: Attentive Silence.
Boundary Setting Boundary Setting is used when the client or the situation requires a limit or boundary to their behavior or request. Some of these situations may include safety concerns, protection of the property in the counseling office, or personal boundaries of the counselor. For example, a counselor should use Boundary Setting if the client asks to walk the counselor to his/her car at the end of the session or if the client begins to pick off all the flowers of an arrangement in the office. Boundary Setting can also be used if the client asks to be social media friends or obtain the counselor’s personal information. The most facilitative Boundary Setting reflections are those that contain 3 parts. 1) Empathy and attunement to the client’s feelings and motivations, 2) A clear explanation of the limit, and 3) An alternative solution that attends to the client’s wishes while complying with the limit. For the situation in which the client is pulling flowers from an arrangement in the office, a facilitative Boundary Setting reflection might sound like “I know it can feel fun to pull the flowers off (part 1- empathy to the client’s desires). The flowers are not for pulling off or moving (part 2- clear limit). I can provide you with some paper to pull apart or a fidget to hold while we talk (part 3- acceptable alternative).”
Broaching Culture Broaching Culture is used to directly address a cultural difference or connection between the counselor and client and to overtly bring cultural issues and values into the counseling dialog. As an example, a counselor might say, “Joe, your cultural identity is an important part of your life and I want to be respectful of this and include it in our work together. As we talk, please let me know if I use language that is inaccurate or feels disrespectful to you.”
Challenge/ Confrontation A Challenge or Confrontation involves the identification and feedback to the client of any incongruities, discrepancies, or mixed messages in behaviors, thoughts, feelings, or meanings. It may also overtly identify areas of ambivalence or challenge the client to be more specific in an identified goal or to push themselves further in the counseling process. For example, “Tony, you shared how important spending time with your family is for you and how you hope to change this part of your schedule, but I notice that your decisions recently don’t align with this goal you have.” Another example might be: “Tony, you mentioned working on practicing self-care this week as your homework, but this isn’t very specific. I wonder if you can refine this goal to be more precise on what you intend to do and how often.” As a final example, “On one hand you feel ready and excited for this change, but on the other hand, you are fearful of the unknowns and feel reluctant to take the next step.”
Clarifying/ Checkout A Clarify/ Checkout statement used to establish the counselor’s clarity and accurate understanding of what the client has shared. It is often a closed question and should be after another reflection to check for accuracy or acceptance. For example, “Jane, you said.., did I hear that correctly?” or “Jane, I want to make sure that I understand you correctly, when you said…”
Closed Ended Questions Closed Questions can be answered (with a binary “yes” or “no”) in a few words or sentences. They are often used to gather information (investigation) but place the counselor in control of and responsible for the interview. Once Closed Ended Questions begin, clients tend to wait for the next question. Closed questions often begin with is, are, or do. Example: “Are you thinking about hurting yourself?”
Defining Goals Defining Goals is used to label the process of identifying client goals or outcomes. This type of reflection is often used in connection with the client’s treatment plan or focus of counseling. For example, “Sounds like one important goal you have is to work on managing your feelings of stress.”
Defining Problems Defining Problems is used to identify, concretize, or make specific the problems that need to be resolved or opportunities that need to be actualized. Counselors can identify barriers to the counseling process or issues that the client experiences as problematic, which can often be linked to the treatment plan. For example, “LaShawnda, one of the problems you are frequently experiencing is the struggle to communicate your needs.” Another example might be, “It seems like every time you try to practice your relaxation techniques when you are stressed, you have an interrupting thought that comes in that disrupts the process for you, and this makes the technique ineffective in helping you to calm.”
Door Openers/ Invitational Statements Door Openers/ Invitational Statements are reflections that invite the client to share more about a topic. These reflections may begin with a summary from a previous session (“Last week, you were talking about the stress you are feeling in your relationship with your son”) and then a follow up Door Opener/ Invitational Statement (“I wonder if you’d like to share more about that today.”). Door Openers/ Invitational Statements may also begin with phrases like “Tell me more about… “, “Say more”, “You shared earlier about…”, or “One topic we haven’t discussed yet is…” Door Openers/ Invitational Statements are distinctive from Structuring/ Focusing Counseling in that they are not targeted for a specific treatment goal, theoretical focus, or area of particular interest. Rather, these reflections are intended to be broad and general and are about inviting the client to simply share more about various parts of their lives and themselves.
Emotional Empathy Using multiple types of reflections, the counselor provides a summary of the client’s story that emphasizes the client’s experience as significant and highlights the client’s feelings and meaning. The purpose of Emotional Empathy reflections is to offer deeper empathy and communicate emotive understanding to the client. These reflections offer emotional attunement, organize the client’s inner experience, and communicate the deepest levels of therapeutic understanding. Example: Instead of simply reflecting “that’s hard”, an Emotional Empathy reflection would be: “It sounds like it was a really rough day with the kids (paraphrase), and you are feeling so overwhelmed (reflection of feeling) with all that you are juggling. Being a good mom is so important to you (reflection of meaning), but you are also feeling absolutely exhausted (reflection of feeling).” Counselors must also be mindful of congruence with their non-verbals when providing Emotional Empathy. Vocal tone, facial expressions, body posture, and eye contact should all support connection, attunement, and understanding.
Facilitative Humor Facilitative Humor is an interpersonal skill used to develop rapport with the client, create levity in the moment (as appropriate), and offer a unique reframe for a situation. Facilitative Humor should be used sparingly and should be culturally sensitive.
Group Work Skill of Blocking Blocking involves intervening to stop counterproductive behavior in the group or to protect members. This skill is important in maintaining safety and cohesion in the group. For example, “Terrance, I know you are feeling really angry right now. One of our rules for this group is to refrain from aggressive language or making faces at one another.”
Group Work Skill of Linking Linking promotes member-to-member interaction and facilitates the exploration of common themes in a group. For example, “Beth, I could see you really connecting to what LaShawnda was sharing. Sounds like loss is a theme in your life that you feel familiar with too.”
Identifying/ Building Strengths Identifying/ Building Strengths reflections are usedto labelthe process of identifying client assets, past successes, or exceptions to the problem. This reflection targets the inner character traits, protective factors, and resources that a client calls upon to grow or overcome adversity. Counselors should avoid evaluative or “cheerleader” phrases as these types of phrases are praise-based and foster a pleasing, external focus for validation. “Cheerleader” phrases to avoid are “good job”, “you did great work”, or “you are amazing”. Instead, the counselor can Identify/ Build Strengths in the client by reflecting on inner resources and making observations and connections with these resources. For example, “This is such a challenging time, but you are continuing to put in the work and are showing so much perseverance.” Or, “you kept going; you didn’t give up”; “you are proud of what you’ve accomplished”; “despite all the hurt you’ve experienced, you still offer love and forgiveness to important people in your life”; or “you worked very hard on this.”
Immediacy Immediacy is used to reflect on something occurring in the present moment with the client or highlight the here-and-now in the client/counselor relationship. For example, “Beth, I noticed that you started hanging your head when you began sharing about some of your wishes for change.” Or, “Beth, I sense some tension in our relationship together, and I wonder if you are feeling frustrated with me right now.”
Intervention/ Directive An Intervention/ Directive involves instructing the client to participate in some specific technique/activity from a counseling model. Interventions/ Directives should be used with caution and with strong clinical decision-making and only after a counseling relationship has been securely developed and the client is in the working stage of the therapeutic process. Examples of Interventions/ Directives include guided imagery, role-play, relaxation training, REBT, Gestalt techniques, thought-stopping, etc.
Minimal Encouragers Minimal Encouragersare often non-verbal (such as head nods, open hand gestures, and positive facial expressions), but they can also be verbal (such as minimal verbal utterances) to encourage the client to keep talking and sharing. For example, “Mmm” or “Uh-huh” are verbal minimal encouragers. Facilitative verbal Minimal Encouragers should be neutral and not subtly agreeable. For example “right”, “okay”, “sure”, “absolutely” are often socially acceptable verbal Minimal Encouragers, but these are Non-Facilitative for counselors because they essentially “agree” with what the client is saying and convey a level of evaluation as to the “correctness” of what the client is sharing.
Normalizing Normalizing reflections are used to help clients feel validated in their experiences as normal. Normalizing is used as a tool to oppose pathologizing a thought, feeling, or experience. Clients benefit from Normalizing reflections by knowing that their internal world or somatic expressions of psychological distress are a normative part of the human experience and that these experiences do not mean they are “wrong”, “different”, “broken”, or “crazy”. For example, “Maria, nightmares after a traumatic event like the one you experienced are a normative reaction, and this is not uncommon.”
Open Ended Questions Open Questions are questions that can’t be answered in a few words, such as “yes” or “no”. These reflections usually begin with what, how, why, or could. Example: “What brings you here today?” Counselors should be cautious of “why” questions as clients may feel shamed by this phrasing or simply do not have an explanation or self-insight to respond. An overuse of questions may also leave the client feeling interrogated, so counselors should use open questions sparingly and with clinical judgment and theoretical rationale. Counselors can also adjust the phrasing to be “softer” by using “I wonder” at the start of the reflection. For example, “I wonder how your relationship with your parents is impacting your perspective of your daughter now.”
Paraphrase/ Reflecting Content Paraphrase/ Reflecting Content is used to communicate back to the client what he/she is sharing. The goal of a Paraphrase/ Reflecting Content is to communicate that the client has been heard and to facilitate client exploration and clarification of issues. A true Paraphrase/ Reflecting Content will retain the client’s perspective and message, not building on it or altering it, and simply rephrases or condenses what the client has shared. For example, “Sounds like after you left the meeting, you decided to make a new plan for what to do.”
Psychoeducation Psychoeducation is used when the client needs to learn an aspect of the counseling process, such as the structure or philosophies of an applied theory, or receive important information about a mental health aspect of him/herself, such as diagnosis, trauma reactions, or the importance of self-care. Psychoeducation is best delivered in small amounts so that the client can process it. For example, “Joe, in our work together one of the goals we have is to help reduce your anxiety. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is something that I believe will be helpful to you as this approach addresses how our thoughts and beliefs can impact our feelings and perspectives and ultimately our behaviors.” Or, “Beth, we’ve been discussing how overwhelming it feels for you to visit the site of the car crash. This connects with the pattern of avoidance that is associated with trauma. This effort to avoid is your brain’s way of trying to help you and protect you, but in doing so, it’s also hijacking your system in some ways.”
Reflection of Feeling Reflection of Feeling involves observing client’s emotions and providing feedback on emotional content to the client. Reflection of Feeling must include a specific emotion, such as angry, depressed, confused, overwhelmed. The phrase “it feels like” is not a true Reflection of Feeling because there is typically not a specific emotion that is identified. Counselors should also aim to be specific with the feelings as “upset”, “frustrated”, “troubled” and “bothered” are vague and very general. Reflection of Feelings should begin with “you are feeling”, “you felt”, “you are (emotion)”. Counselors should avoid the phrase “makes you feel” as this communicates an external locus of control for the client and suggests that an outside force can make a client feel something, which is an unhelpful message. A facilitative Reflection of Feeling might sound like, “You feel so betrayed and devastated”, “You are so lonely right now”, or “You are feeling really hopeful and excited about this”.
Reflection of Mood Reflection of Mood is similar to Reflection of Feeling except the client’s apparent mood is reflected back to the client. Mood refers to a more pervasive and sustained emotional state than feeling or affect. Mood is to feeling as climate is to rain. Reflection of Mood is often used at the beginning of a session to quickly identify the client’s most relevant issue and often eliminates or reduces the need to structure the session. Example: “Hi John, you seem really sad today.” “Am I picking up on that correctly?” (Social Greeting, Reflection of Mood, Checkout).
Reflection of Meaning Reflection of Meaning is used to identify the deeply held thoughts, beliefs, and values of the client. Reflection of Meaning can also include core beliefs, which are organizing constructs that are at the core of our being, and it can also target the client’s attribution of meaning to a significant experience. A Reflection of Values can begin with phrases like: “What really gives your life meaning is…,”, “One of your most strongly held beliefs is…,”, “Sounds like you really value…,”, “One of the underlying reasons for your actions was…”, “Something that is very important to you is…”, or “Seems like this experience has come to represent… to you.
Reframe Reframes are used to help the client to look at a situation from a new perspective or gain insight into the underlying causes of his/her behavior. Through Reframes, the counselor is often sharing a perspective different from the client’s. This different perspective could come from the counselor’s own frame of reference, an alternative perspective, or theoretical model. For example (from a theoretical perspective), “You say that you feel defeated in this situation, but I hear a lot of automatic thoughts that are coming into play for you, such as ‘this can never get better’”. Another example of a Reframe from counselor insight might be: “You shared about your relationship with your mom and how disappointed you are about this part of your life. Seems like you hold your mother’s opinion of you in the highest regard and as the ultimate validation of how you feel about yourself.” Additionally, Reframes can prompt the client to see the problem or situation in a new, more solvable, or positive way. Reframes offer a new, more constructive definition of the problem that fits the facts just as accurately as the client’s old definition. To reframe a client’s problem, the counselor must appreciate the client’s worldview and then replace it with an acceptable alternative. For example, “Another way to look at this situation is that this challenge you are experiencing is actually a powerful opportunity for you to practice all the new coping strategies that you have been working on. Rather than a setback, this could be a place to move forward.”
Repetition of Keywords/ Phrases Repetition of Keywords/ Phrases is the exact repetition of a client’s keyword or short phrase that seems noteworthy to the counselor. Repetition of Keywords/ Phrases prompts the client to share more about that particular word or phrase, and this technique is used to both encourage and focus the client’s dialogue. For example, if the client says, “I just feel so out of control all of time”, a Repetition of Keywords/ Phrases reflection might be: “Out of Control” to prompt the client to share more. Counselors should be aware of how much and what type of direction they are using with exact repetition. They should also consciously choose whether to add inflection to the repetition (making it a statement or indirect question: “Out of Control.” Vs. “Out of Control?”).
Scaling Scaling is a brief and informal assessment tool that counselors can utilize with clients to monitor their stress/ anxiety levels. Scaling involves establishing the client’s normative thoughts/feelings/phsyical sensations/stress levels across a spectrum from “none or minimal distress” to “highly significant distress” so that counselor and client are both clear about what each number on the scale (0-5 or 1-10) means and indicates. This spectrum is often referred to as a SUDs (Subjective Unit of Distress) scale. The counselor can then periodically check-in with the client using Scaling questions about where the client’s current distress level is by using the SUDs scale or to track progress across sessions. For example, “Betsy, describe to me what a “1” on your distress scale feels like to you. How do you know when you are at your most relaxed and calm?” Or, “Miguel, you just shared about such a terrifying experience, and I’m noticing some changes in your breathing. I wonder where you are on your SUDs scale right now.” Lastly, “Julien, last week you shared that your anxiety was at about a 7 throughout most of your workday. I wonder what your level was this week.”
Social Greeting Social Greeting involves a socially expected response and typical social introductions and farewells, such as saying hello and goodbye to clients without asking them how they are. Other Social Greetings might include, “Thank you,” “I’m so sorry for your loss,” etc.
Structuring/ Focusing Counseling Structuring/ Focusing Counseling is used to direct attention to certain aspects of the client’s story or the counseling process/goals or to facilitate the process of deciding what to talk about during a session. Structuring/ Focusing Counseling is used to help the client focus on feelings, thoughts, problems, others, family, cultural context, etc., and it should be applied with connection to a counseling goal and/or theoretical orientation. For example, “Jane, one of our goals in counseling is for you to have greater insight into how these thoughts are impacting your feelings and behavior. Let’s explore one of the big thoughts you just described.”
Summary A Summary reflects on a longer period of conversation and then consolidates and integrates topics, key concepts, meanings, feelings, issues, goals, interpretations, generalizations, etc. to encapsulate what was discussed. A Summary is often used at the beginning of a session (to give continuity) midway in the session (as a transition), and at the end (for repetition, emphasis, and closure). Summaries help organize an experience for a client, and they are facilitative reflections to provide after the client has just talked for a long time. Some examples of Summary include, (to start a session), “Dave, last time we met you shared about the challenging dynamics you are experiencing with your brother and how this is impacting your stress levels.” As another example (after a long client monolog), “You are feeling hopeless about how to move forward after this tremendous loss in your life, but you are also taking specific steps to think through your next decision.” As a final example (at the end of a session), “In wrapping up for today, you shared about how you are working on repairing trust with your spouse, considering the best plans for your future, and you also identified some specific goals for us to work on together in counseling, which are… “.