Advanced Counseling Skills – Part 1

MCFC/MHC/CC Residency 1

Learning Objectives

• From this presentation, you will be given information to:

Utilize skills of challenging and confronting

Explain the purpose of immediacy and self

disclosure

Practice advanced skills

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Advanced Counseling Skills

Advanced skills help move from the

introduction stage to exploration and action

stages of counseling

Focus primarily on feelings and communication

Help to establish trust in the relationship

Facilitate rapport between counselor and client

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting• Although this may hint of condescension this is not the

intent. If delivered in a subtle manner, a client will not perceive your efforts as confrontational.

• Invite clients to challenge themselves to change ways of thinking and acting that keep them mired in problem situations and prevent them from identifying and developing opportunities.

• If they do not accept the invitation, then challenge them directly to change. Examine what the benefits and costs (logical consequence) there are for the client if they do not choose to make change.

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

• Goals• To increase participation in the counseling process

• To increase client’s awareness of blind spots and develop new perspectives

• To identify responsibility for problems and unused potential

• To enhance the client’s problem solving ability

• To challenge distortions, excuses, games

• To explore consequences of client’s actions

• To move beyond discussion and inertia into action

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

Challenging/Confronting is a logical step in listening:

Attending > listening > understanding >

empathy > probing > challenging

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

• What to Challenge

• Between what is said now vs. earlier

• “Earlier I thought I heard you say that you did not want to quit your job, now I am hearing you say that you are planning to quit.”

• Between verbal and nonverbal cues

• “I hear you say that you are not angry with him, but I can’t help but notice that your fists are clenched, you are talking faster, and you are using strong words when you talk about him.”

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

What to Challenge (cont.)

• Between what the client says s/he wants and what s/he is doing to achieve it

• I understand that you want to not be dependent on your parents any longer, however I don’t see that you are planning to get a job to make this happen.

• Blindspots

• lack of awareness

• self-deception

• choosing to stay in the dark

• knowing but not caring

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

What to Challenge (cont.)• Disputing Beliefs when thinking is distorted,

irrational, or illogical• Help the client explore underlying beliefs that might be

leading to self defeating patterns• Listen for exaggerated, hyperbolic language (e.g.,

“never”, “always”, “only”)• Listen for absolutes• Listen for sense of entitlement• Listen for overgeneralizations• Listen for “musts” and “shoulds”• Listen for shirking of responsibility

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Skill: Challenging/Confronting

What to Challenge (cont.)

• Problems they are avoiding• Opportunities they are ignoring• Things they are overlooking• Things they are refusing to see• Things they don’t want to do• Assumptions they are making• Dishonesty with themselves

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Activity

Practice challenging these clients: A woman who takes care of everyone else except herself A student who says s/he plans to go to med school, but has only a 2.0 GPA A client who professes to hold strong religious values, but disparages people of other racial and ethnic groups A client who is crying while stating that everything is fine

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Skill: Immediacy

Immediacy – using a moment in counseling to deal with an issue, whether it be b/w you and the client or you are challenging the clientSituations for Immediacy

lack of direction tension trust diversity dependency counterdependency

attraction (be very careful in this discussion)

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Skill: Counselor Self DisclosureFormula:

Must be appropriate and purposeful, not burdensome to client Use personal pronouns (I, me, my) Use verb for content, feeling, or both (I think… I feel… I have

experienced) Use feeling words and expression of feeling (My experience was

similar to yours and I felt betrayed and sad over the loss of my job; or, I know what it was like for me to be in that situation. I really had to adjust to _____. What is it like for you?)

Remember, it is ALWAYS about the client, so don’t change the focus to you Attend to your client’s story Assess the appropriateness of your story and share it BRIEFLY Return the focus to the client and pay attention to client’s

reaction to your story

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Skill: Counselor Self Disclosure

• Be genuine• Be selective• Do not share too often• Do not interrupt your client to share your

story• Always ask yourself how this will benefit

your client

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Activity• Your 15-year-old client recently experienced the

breakup. He is very upset about the loss of this significant relationship and doesn’t believe he will ever fall in love again because this person was so special.

• You also remember how sad you were with your first breakup. How can you appropriately disclose to your client information about your experience in a way that facilitates the client’s counseling process?

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References

Egan, G. (2010). The skilled helper: A problem management and opportunity development approach to helping (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole (Cengage Learning). ISBN: 978-0-495-60189-0 or 0-495-60189-6 hard.

Egan, G. (2010). Exercises in helping skills: A manual to accompany the skilled helper (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole (Cengage Learning). ISBN: 978-0-495-80632-5 or 0-495-80632-3 soft.

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