Nine Essential Basic Client Centered Counseling Skills

Nine Essential Basic Client Centered Counseling Skills

1. Attending:

• Verbal and nonverbal responses, often minimal, that communicate genuine interest, empathy, caring and respect to a client.

• Some examples of attending behaviors are:

o hand gestures,

o nodding,

o saying, “yes,” or, “uh, huh,” or “go on…”

o maintaining eye contact,

o leaning forward

2. Open-Ended Questioning:

• Often questions that begin with “How, Who, What, When, Where, and Why” encourage the client to provide more useful information than closed questions do.

• Open questions can help a client get started, find direction, and/or explore a concern further.

• Closed questions can typically be answered with a “yes,” or “no.” Closed questions are useful when the counselor is summarizing and believes the client is ready to move on to another phase or topic.

3. Paraphrasing:

• Stating back to the client the content of what a client has said, using fewer words, to selectively summarize in a way that will focus and move the next interaction, demonstrate and clarify the counselor’s understanding of the client’s meaning. “So, let me see if I understand, what you are saying is …?”

• Translate the content into your own word

4. Reflecting Feelings:

• Stating clearly what you perceive to be the clients feelings, to encourage further emotional expression and demonstrate the counselor understands. If you are wrong the client can clarify and that may help the client clarify further as well. “You are angry about…”

o Recall and restate clients message

o Identify affective component

o Translate affect into words

• Captures a client’s emotional tone and communicates a sense of empathy

• Use of Reflection:

o Encourages expression of feelings

o Intensifies feelings and increases awareness...