An open-ended question is a question that gives the client the chance to talk in detail on any applicable area and urges them to add any extra information. These types of questions help the client make the client feel like they need to add as much details as they wish to. A therapist in order to encourage a client to communicate may also use this type of question. An example of open-ended questions would be “Tell me about your relationship with your spouse? ”
A closed-ended question is requires a specific answer for the question. These types of questions are used by a therapist to get a specific answer from their client in order to identify parameters of a problem or to narrow the topic of discussion. Closed-ended question usually have a
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short answer, for example, it may be an answer like “Yes” or “No”. An example of a close-ended question would be “Do you feel hurt?” or “Do you get angry often?” . Heighten awareness questions are usually used in gestalt therapy which is a multifaceted psychological method that stresses the development of a client’s self-awareness and personal responsibility. The purpose of these question is to help clients become more aware of what is happening within them and how to deal with their emotional feelings. Examples of heighten awareness questions would be “What are you feeling emotionally right now” or, if the client bursts into tears during the session, the counselor might ask, “Can you put words to your tears”, and so forth. It is important to allow the client to travel at their own pace in the counseling conversation.
However, sometimes the client may divert away from talking over important concerns and problems. A way of a therapist dealing with this would be to use a transitional question. These types of questions are used by the therapist to return the focus of the conversation back to the issue of problem on hand. An example would be, “A few minutes ago you mentioned the option of leaving your job. Would you like to spend some time talking about that?”. This would ensure that the conversation returns to its earlier discussion.
Choice questions are mostly used by counselors when working with a younger crowd. These types of questions provide insight to the clients and help them be aware of their ability to choose the way they behave, and that those choices are associated with consequences. Choice questions may also help the client consider the different options they have and come up with alternative choices for the future. For example, a therapist would ask the client, “What would have been a better choice of action to have made at that time?” or “How would you respond if that same situation arises
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again? Guru question are used by a therapist in order to get the client to look at themselves from a distance and give advice to themselves as if they are a “wise guru”. In general, people find it easier to give advice than to get advice. By asking the client to look at their own problem with a different perspective, they are more likely to come up with a reasonable solution on their own. For example, a therapist may say to their client, “Imagine that you are a very wise guru and someone has a similar problem, what advice would you give them?” Circular questions are most useful when working with couples or families.
They can also be used with individual clients who have difficulties getting in touch with themselves. A therapist may ask the client “How do you think your sister would feel now that your father has gone to jail?” Instead of asking the client directly about how they feel, the therapist asks the client to speculate about someone else, whether it be their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or attitudes.
Miracle questions are asked by a therapist in order to help the client find hypothetical solutions to their problems. This sort of question enables the client to explore what would be different if the situation were to change for the better. Consequently, thinking of better outcomes may result in the client exploring new ideas in order to make changes. An example of a therapist asking a miracle question would be, “If a genie would pop out a bottle and you were able to fix your problem, how would life be different now?”
Using scaling in therapy or counselling is a way to help the client break down their perception of their situation into ‘grades’. Scaling is effective in therapy because it switches the conversation from emotions to numbers – and this can help people feel calmer. For example, a therapist might say to the client, “Okay, so if 10 is the most depressed you’ve ever felt and 1 is the happiest, what number would you put yourself on right
now?”
This method is grounded in the strengths perspective, a perspective in which the worker center’s their sessions around the clients’ abilities, gifts, and strengths (Shulman, 2016). Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the client, the worker highlights what is right with the client building on their strengths instead of emphasizing their deficits: the client already has what they need to get better or solve their problem (Corcoran, 2008). The role of the worker in this model is to help the client recognize their potential, recognize what resources they already have, and discuss what is going well for the client and what they have been able to accomplish already (Shulman, 2016). Techniques commonly used in this model, although they are not exclusive to this model, include an emphasis on pre- and between-session change, exception questions, the miracle question, scaling questions, and coping questions (Shulman, 2016). These questions are used for many reasons: for example, the miracle question is used because “sometimes asking clients to envision a brighter future may help them be clearer on what they want or to see a path to problem-solving.” (Corcoran, 2008, p. 434) while coping questions are used to allow the client to see what they are already accomplishing, rather than what they are transgressing (Corcoran, 2008). All
Here the therapist would help X review her emotions, thoughts, early life experiences, and beliefs to acquire the necessary insight into their emotional life about their current emotional situation. The therapist can then draw an emotional pattern of X over time. Taking, for instance, her reaction to her failed marriage, her parents' deaths and lastly, her relationship breakdown with her half-siblings. Pin-pointing recurrent behavioral patterns establish a persons' way of responding to situations, these can be ways of avoiding distress or development of defense mechanisms. Strategies are then drawn to cope with these
... By scheduling an activity that the client can participate in and complete, it can give them a sense of mastery in a specific task. This can be beneficial for the client to feel accomplished. Another technique that I feel can be beneficial in therapy is role-playing. Role-playing can be helpful for a client to learn how to dispute irrational beliefs by becoming aware of negative feelings towards theses beliefs (Tan, 2011). In addition, role-playing can help the client to overcome their emotions and practice coping skills that are more effective. The last technique I would incorporate into therapy would be relaxation training. I would suggest ways that can help the client relax including, deep breathing, meditation, yoga, a massage or exercising. By getting the client to have methods to relax, I think it can help with managing their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Although, this session ended with amazing results, I feel as though I need more practice with this type of therapy. I have to continue to practice on allowing the patient to come up with their own solutions. I found it hard not giving advice to my client, because I already knew the situation. However, in the end I found myself very proud, because even though this was not a real therapy session, but the client was able to find a real solution to her problem. This experience is one that teaches the therapist restraint, it allows one to step back and listen. It also gives the client the opportunity to reach a solution themselves without someone giving them the answer to their
A counselor should always keep their thoughts to themselves and remain open-minded about the situation. The only time a counselor should share their thoughts is if it helps the client with their situation that they are dealing with. “Counselors must practice only within the boundaries of their competence (Standard C.2.a.), and, if they “determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients” (Standard A.11.b.), they should facilitate a referral to another provider. (Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (2014). Addressing Value-Based Conflicts Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision-Making Model. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180-186 7p. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x).” Keeping your thoughts to yourself is
...ing silence, paraphrasing and reflection of feelings, as well as non-verbal skills such as body-language and active listening are all used in order to allow the client to introspect and work with their problems in a safe environment, the role of the counselor within the relationship being to support the client and help them to reach their true potential by expressing emotions and thoughts that they can’t express outside of the helping relationship, whether it be for fear of rejection or some other reason.
Motivational interviewing is based on a client centered approach to therapy that uses open-ended questions, affirmation, reflective listening and summaries to help the client recognize the pros and cons of change and their reasons for resisting change thereby eliminating their ambivalence about change. Once the client deals with their ambivalence the Miller and Rollick believe that the client will be able to make the necessary changes. In addition, motivational interviewing gets the client to argue for change not the counselor. Furthermore, the client not the counselor is responsible for their progress.
The therapist will ask a variety of questions and based on the responses they will seek meaning in those responses, a type of Socratic line of questioning. This line of questioning is to get the patient to view problems differently and come up with alternative solutions. When these alternative solutions are identified then experiments can be conducted to test if these solutions will work. When the patient responds with avoidance, lessened activity or behaviors that can be detrimental to their treatment they risk having the problems continuing or the person feeling worse. The therapist will work to gradually lessen the patient’s anxiety to the point where they are comfortable with trying new behavior skills that will eventually get rid of the
...p their own solutions to problems. Clients may need some guidance, education, or direction depending on their abilities and how the therapy is going. It is then that I want to be able to help them feel more empowered and recognize that they can make changes with effort on their part.
Closed-ended questions usually begin with action words such as "do", "does", "can", "have", "had", "will", "are", "is" and "was". These questions can be used to gather specific information or to understand the client 's willingness to commit to a particular action. Using close-ended questions that seek specific details and are designed to encourage the client to share information about behaviors (such as the specific actions or behavioral coping strategies used by
“Modest goals are seen as the beginning of change”. Clients talking about the exceptions to the problems. No problem is constant and change is inevitable. When clients begin to truly change their views and become more positive about their situation they have engaged in change. Positivity concerning their strengths leads to the more desireable outcome which is a brief series of sessions. Small changes make way for larger changes.
After watching the video tape, I realised that I was quite good at using questioning skill to help the client. The closed and open questions used in the interview were considered to be acceptable and appropriate. I believe that my personal experiences have shaped my ability to appropriately apply this skill in counselling. When I was younger, I used to listen to my grandmother talking about her past and the old tales that she had heard of. I...
Key words such as closed and open questions are very well explained. Differentiating when to use each type of question is described and useful for facilitating an interactive dialogue. It is important to understand how to assist the patient in relaying important details and to ensure that what the patient has expressed is understood.
But I had realized that I do not have to have all the answers and I am not here to give solution to the client. Instead, I am here to assistant the client in finding solution to their problems that would work for them. Therefore, when I am stuck I would have to paraphrased or summarized the client statement or conversation that the client had said to me. I would always keep in mind that I have to be an active listener and listen to my client with non-judgmental. This is only reason that I was able to continue with my session with my client (husband) and most of the time I did not let our relationship interfered with the counseling session. During the interview I had use the reflection of meaning, interpretation and reframing. Meaning is how my client feels about the situation. Interpretation is what I think he is feeling about the situation. As for the reframing I had assisted the client to find an alternative way for client to approach the
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.