Skills Lab Workshop

This workshop is required for all Generalist students enrolled in SW7005 Practice I
and prior to beginning their internship

LSU SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

OFFICE OF FIELD EDUCATION
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https://lsuonline.moodle.lsu.edu/mod/q
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Skills Lab Handouts

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Click here to find the Skills Lab Handouts on
Moodle.
 INTRODUCTION
Counseling vs Interviewing (Supportive Counseling)
adapted from Intentional Interviewing by Ivey & Ivey

Counseling and Interviewing

 Interviewing= information gathering regarding situation

or problem. Brief assessment and problem solving
occurs. Has specific purpose or goal. Used in various
professions. Not a therapeutic relationship. Goal of this
class.

 Counseling = intensive and personal process - purpose is

to help deal with interpersonal struggles or problems.
Goes beyond exploration, process provided by trained
professional. Will be exposed but not goal of this class.
 Attending Skills

Basic to Communication
Foundation skill. May seem simple but is a learned skill.
Must be practice. Used in all professions.
Goal is to encourage client talk and decrease interviewers talk

Four Basic Attending Skills:

1. Visual and Eye contact

 Lets client know that your are interested
 Reflects feelings and reactions
 Encourages open communication
 Must be aware of cultural factors
2. Vocal Qualities
 Use as a tool
 Examples: Coach, cheerleader, organizer, hypnosis
 Must use voice to react to audience: attention, enthusiasm, control, interest

3. Verbal Tracking – stay with the client. May be difficult if client changes
topics or
avoids.
 Selective Attention – be careful to hear all topic areas

4. Attentive Body Language

 Use your body (Face squarely, Lean forward, expressive face, Encouraging
gestures, be authentic)
 Notice changes in body response in connection with subject
 CULTURAL
INTERNATIONALITY
 Individual and Cultural Sensitive
 Additional Attending Skills:
 Non-Attention = often used to limit inappropriate discussion or repeating the
topic over and over
 Use of Silence-
 Difficult to wait for client to respond
 can be powerful with client that is challenging
 Encourages client to share
 You are modeling good communication skills
 Cultural Differences in Attending (General not specific- must access each
client)
 Eye Contact Direct vs. Gaze
 Vocal Tone Loud vs. Soft
 Verbal Tracking Direct vs. More subtle
 Body Language Forward trunk lean vs. sitting side by
side
 Speech Rate Slow vs. Fast, Near vs. Far,
 Space Varied vs. Monotone
 OBSERVATION SKILLS

OBSERVATION SKILLS = helps the interviewer understand the

clients patterns of communication, reactions, feelings, etc. Enables
the interviewer/counselor to choose appropriate and effective
intervention strategies to promote action and growth.

 Observation helps to note nonverbal and verbal behavior, and

any discrepancies.

 To be an effective helper you must develop excellent

observation skills. Ability to observe what is said, what is not
said, and when those two don’t match.

 Observation builds from attending skills and questioning. It is

the next skill in our pyramid.

 In addition to being aware of the client and you must be aware

of your self too.
 Verbal & Non Verbal
Communication
NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOR
 Approximately 85% of communication
 Patterns of vision, eye-contact, voice, body language
 Illustrate: examples
 Facial expressions: face tight or relaxed, lips pressed or loose, breaking eye contact, look in eyes (dazed, angry, and
confused). People reflect confusion, anger, shame, verge of tears.
 Body Language – pay particular attention to hands, arms, body open or closed, legs crossed. Are they facing you or
turned away. Hands move or shake sporadically or is their purpose to articulate. Does your body language change
with the clients story. If you or they become defensive? Pay particular attention to the physical arrangement of
meeting with people and what that reflects – behind a desk, on a couch, side by side
 Take the opportunity to ask friends, family or co-workers about your communication style re non verbals.

VERBAL
 Clients share their story through verbal and you elicit information verbal. Meaning and emotion to that story is most
often shared through non-verbals.
 We also use verbal to clarify non-verbals.
Verbal Skills

 Selective Attention - when talking with someone or in a interview

what you think is most important is what you are going to address
and may avoid areas you are uncomfortable in. What are your areas
of comfort? Discomfort?

 Key Words - is there a recurring theme in their story - a key phrase

or word (may be a person). Explore with the client their feelings,
thoughts about these key areas and meanings. Verbal Underlining –
what words do they stress or enunciate. May reflect the important
facts or feelings to the story. The client may let you observe their
inability to track their words or thoughts first hand, or their
confusion, or overwhelmed feelings. They may change the subject
when it gets difficult. You may address these changes if appropriate.
Verbal Skills (continued)

 Abstract or concrete conversations - must observe if the client uses more

concrete (detailed/facts focused) or abstract methods of communication (discuss
patterns in their lives or feelings about the situation). Start where the client is,
but advantage to using both for all clients. A client that only communicates
concretely needs help to look at the situation more openly with feelings and
interpretations. This may be one of the areas of growth. Also some clients get
so caught up in abstract that they need some concrete focus. Same is true for
clinicians/students

Individual verbal styles of perceiving the world - everybody receives information

differently
 Visual – need to “see the situation" see, perceive, view, visualize
 Auditory – “hear what is happening” – hear, sounds in tune, harmony
 Kinesthetic – feel touch, wrap around, “feel out the situation”
Encouragers

Variety of verbal and non-verbals to help client share their story

 Nods, Brief phrases, Gestures
 Use of client key words or thoughts
 Restatement with possible inflection
 Focuses on the content of the messages and confirms the
meaning
Paraphrase

More purposeful skill. Goal is to increase exploration and

clarification of issues. You repeat back to the client what you have
heard them say. You may use your own words but must be their key
words or thoughts.

4 Dimensions:
 Use clients mode of receiving information (Visual, Auditory…)
 Use the clients key thoughts
 Provide clear and clarifying statements (essence of what the client
said)
 Clarify for accuracy (Are you on target?)
 Summarizing

Pulls together relevant subjects into one response.

 Both feeling and content are incorporated.
 Similar to other skills but different in purpose. Covers
more dialogue and may begin or end a session/meeting.
 Addresses nonverbal and verbals and highlights the key
points. Check out question at the end to check for
accuracy.
 Very helpful when work is stalled and repetitive.

Summary:
 Encourages - encourage talking and sharing
 Paraphrase - reflects what you hear the client sharing
 Summarization - ties things together and encourages
exploration and movement
 Reflection of Feeling

Similar to paraphrasing, but different because you tune in to the clients emotional
experience. You use key feeling words.
Concerned with reflecting/observing:
 Explicit Feelings - verbally expressed
 Implicit Feelings - normal with that experience but not expressed
NOTING CLIENT VERBAL AND NONVERBAL reg.Feeling
 May be easy to see or may be very discreet (eyes looking at the ground, etc.). Critical
to an effective helper. Sometimes helping skills may include introducing possible
feelings or reactions to help normalize the client's experience. (Don't underplay the
significance of the experience.)
 It is not necessary to note every emotion or reaction but be skillful in the timing and
purpose. Each skill needs to build on the goal.
Reflection of Feeling (continued)

TECHNIQUES OF REFLECTING FEELINGS

Set of verbal responses used purposeful:
 Sentence stem (I hear, You seem, Traci it sounds like, You feel, I
hear you saying)
 Feeling Label - identify feeling explicit or implicit
 Brief Paraphrase added to reflection may help heighten awareness.
Key words about, when, because (You seem to be feeling very sad
since you heard about your friends accident.)
 Tense (past, present, future). May need to try to get client to the
present.
 Check-out - are you on target.
 Reflection of Feeling (continued)

Summary
 Emotions are the key to understanding the story. It often reflects
our thoughts and actions. Gives the client's meaning to the story.
It is the foundation to moving to the re-story. It is the meaning
that helps guide the direction of our interventions. It is the
meaning of the problem/concern that addresses what needs to
happen to resolve or decrease the impact. Each person has a
different meaning of situations.

Important things to note:

 Emotional words used by the clients
 Implicit emotional words not spoken
 Nonverbally expressed emotions observed
 Mixed verbal and non verbal emotional cues
 You may observe emotions or seek out the emotion by asking
open and closed ended questions, paraphrasing, encouraging
 Basic Listening Sequence (BLS)

 Questioning - provides structure to get information

 Encouraging - Brief nonverbal and verbal indications you are listening - Head nods, gestures,
repetition of key words
 Paraphrasing- Feeding back the essence of what you have heard. Helps clarify complex issues
and help people move on to new information
 Reflection of feeling - gives emotional clarification to underlying problem. Helps defuse
emotional issues. Gets them past just feeling and avoids making decisions based on emotions.
Helps clarify ambivalent feelings.
 Summarization - provides thoughts, feelings and information given in a concise and organized
manner. Helps organize complex issues to be dealt with later.

 Lets the client know you understand what that situation may feel like to experience it.

Key Goals:
summary of issue
key facts
emotions/feelings about situation
Dimensions of Empathy

 Positive Regard - seeing the client as a worthy human being

 Respect and warmth- respecting points of view different from
your own. Shown through gestures and voice.
 Concreteness - being specific and clear
 Immediacy (here and now)
 Non-judgmental attitude (avoid evaluation)
 Authenticity and congruence - being yourself and allowing the
client the same
 Confrontation

Addressing discrepancies that sometimes is the catalyst for change. Remember movement to re-story is the
goal. The goal is for individuals to move beyond their problems and realize their full potential.

Knowledge and skill in confrontation results in:

 Increased ability to identify incongruity, discrepancies or mixed messages in behavior, thought, feeling
and meanings.
 Ability to increase client talk with the goal of resolving the discrepancy or getting past it
 Ability to identify client change processes observed during the relationship
 Ability to utilized confrontation skills and the 5 stage interview process as part of mediation and conflict
resolution
 Confrontation Skill (continued)

Gentle and purposeful skill that involves listening to the client carefully and
respectfully and then seeking to help the client examine self or situation more fully.

 Powerful skill but you must have excellent listening and observation skills to be
able to use it effectively. Use BLS skills effectively.
 The most complex skill, and relies on timing and judgment
 Must be done non-judgmentally or from a blaming stance
 Cannot be done in a harsh or superior manner
 Confrontation is not the negative word that we often think of.
 It is not going against the client, but going with the client
 It is helping clients examine their thoughts and behaviors, and clarifying the
meaning
 Sometimes forces the client to face the reality of the situation or the "real" problem
 Must be done taking in cultural implications
 Confrontation (continued)

Discrepancy can take two forms:

 Behavior vs. statement
 Discrepancies internal to the client (mixed
messages in non-verbal behavior, in
congruencies in verbal statements, between
verbal and action, verbal and non-verbal)
 Discrepancies between the client and the
external world (home or work
environment)
 Discrepancies between you and the client
(personal values or opinions)
 Statement vs. statement
 May be difficult for the client to admit or own the
discrepancy. You must have developed a
relationship of trust and safe environment before
confrontation would effective.
Steps to Address Discrepancy

3 major steps:
 Identifying mixed messages, discrepancies, and incongruity
 Pointing out these issues clearly to clients and helping them
work through the conflict to find understanding, resolve or
resolution
 Evaluating the effectiveness of your intervention on client
change and growth (client response action, stuck, resentment,
etc.)
 Focusing

Enables multiple telling of a story and will assist you and

the client to think of new possibilities for re-storying.
EFFECTIVE USE RESULTS IN:
 Increased client cognitive and emotional complexity. Too
often clients consider the situation from only one frame of
reference.
 Better understanding of the viewpoints of others and higher
empathy for others
 Includes more family and cultural issues through using family
and community genograms
Ways of Focusing:
 Focus on the client
 Focus on the main theme or problem
 Focus on others
 Focus on family (as defined by family)
 Focus on Mutuality
 Focus on Cultural/Environmental/Contextual
ELICITING AND REFLECTING
MEANING
Helping Clients Explore Values and Beliefs

Reflection of Meaning is concerned with finding the deeply held thoughts and feelings (meanings) underlying life
experience. You can expect clients to search into deeper aspects of their life experience. Our unique perspective greatly
impacts.

 Interpretation of their own experience

 Explore their values and goals in life
 Better understanding of the client experience

Things that impact our Meaning:

 Family
 Friends
 Choices
 Experience
 Values
 Beliefs
 Cultural Factors
 Resources
 Unexpected events
Influencing

 Influencing begins from the moment you introduce yourselves. Even using
just attending you influence. Being heard by another person influences the
way we think about ourselves, others and our life.

 Influencing is a proactive strategy to human change. They provide several

alternatives for action which promotes more rapid change.

 Must use BLS skills to help this process. This is a more direct part on
interviewing/counseling, and it is easy to forget to use our basic skills.
Remember respect and pace of client.

 Must be very aware of our own values, beliefs and perspective to not
influence for our own purposes or biases.
 Structuring Interview/Intake

 Establish Rapport – Includes introductions, housekeeping issues, limitations/breadth of services, your

credentials, confidentiality limits
"Hello"

 Gather Information- may include the agency intake/outline or basic questions

What brings to our program today?

 Defining outcomes- can you and/or the agency meet their needs. Do we know what the problem is?
What is your ideal solution? What is your view as the best resolution? What were you hoping we could help you
with today?

 Confronting client on incongruity and generating alternative ideas (work towards resolution of problems)
Sounds like what you want in a relationship and what you are presently getting from this relationship is different.
How do you think you can resolve this problem?

 Generalizing and transferring learning

What do you think with stand in your way? What do you think will be the hardest parting.. or rate degree of
difficulty?
 Questions

Gather information first. Do not try to find solutions to the problem before you know what problem needs resolving.
Questions either encourage or discourage responses .
2 different types with different purposes:

 OPEN QUESTIONS = usually elicits more responses. Requires to give more information or unpredictable responses. Typically begins with –
What, How, Why, Could.

 CLOSED QUESTIONS = elicits brief responses or answers to specific questions. Information sometimes predictable. Less effective for
encouraging client to discuss situation. Typically begins with – Is, Are Do.

GOALS OF QUESTIONS:
 Allows client to tell THEIR story
 Encourages sharing
 Learn more about their world and experiences
 Provides exploration of problem
 Directs the interview
 Opens new areas for discussion
 Clarifies issues of concern
 Encourages self-exploration
 Establishes rapport/relationship

3 Strategies of Questions: (differs from third degree)

 Overall situation
 Feelings regarding situation
 Characteristics of Questions

 Help begin the interview (adjust to verbal to non-clients)

 Help elaborate and enrich clients story(keeps it moving)
 Bring out concrete specifics of the client’s world (clarifies vague/ambiguous comments)
 Critical to assessment (vital to an appropriate dx. Or tx. Intervention)
 First word often determines information shared (What=facts How=feelings or process,
Why=discussion of reasons, Could=leave more control for client)

Barrier to Communication
 Grilling
 Too many at one time
 Leading with statement
 Cultural differences
 Avoid why questions

First step to search for positive aspects

 Provide feedback
 Exceptions to the concern

 Integration

 Major Function: The skills, strategies and

concepts of intentional interviewing and counseling
will not be beneficial to clients unless you can
integrate them smoothly into a fluid interview and
treatment plan (problem solving model).

Easy to Remember: 1-2-3 Pattern

 Listen = must use basic skills to determine client's

definition or the world. How do they see, feel, hear,
and represent their world?

 Assess and Influence = best used after you

understand the client impressions and
representations of their experience. Provides a new
information.

 Check out = observation of non-verbals and

Pulling in all together
Final Steps

 Review all slides

 Create an outline for the character/situation that you will use
when you are the “client” in a role play
 If you are on campus, you will role-play during Skills Lab. If
you are on online student, we encourage you to practice with a
student colleague or supervisor, but you are no longer required
to submit the video.
 Final step, take the Skills Lab Quiz on Moodle to document
your completion. You can take it 2 times. Completion of skills
lab counts as 6 hours towards your field hours. Quiz line:
Link: https://lsuonline.moodle.lsu.edu/mod/quiz/view.php?id=
131027