CH. 4. Observation Skills

Question 1

Observation

Answer 1

OBSERVATION – the act of watching carefully and intentionally with the purpose of understanding behavior.

• 85% or more of communication is nonverbal. How something is said can overrule the actual words used by you or your client.
  
  • A keen observer discovers the many ways clients express their needs, emotions, and motivations.

OBSERVATION SKILLS – Observe your own and the client’s verbal and nonverbal behavior. Anticipate individual and multicultural differences in nonverbal and verbal behavior.

• Carefully and selectively feed back some here-and-now observations to the client as topics for exploration.
  
  • EX: “I notice you fidgeting since we started discussing this particular topic. How does this make you feel?”

PRINCIPLES OF OBSERVATION – You learn as much about yourself and your counseling skills as you do about your clients during observation.

• You have cognitive thoughts, but your body is also reacting emotionally.
  
  • Out of this process of self-awareness will come growth and change in your skills.
  • Whether the focus is on the client or on you, observation provides a compass to guide you.
• Eye contact and forward torso lean were found to be highly correlated with ratings of EMPATHY.
• Tone of voice plays an important role in establishing and maintaining a relationship
• Observing women’s attitudes toward real and imagined gender harassment.
  
  • When they were asked to imagine being harassed in an interview, they said that they were angry.
    
    • But those who were actually harassed felt fear (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2002).
    • From a neuroscience perspective, anger is a secondary emotion to the more basic fear

Question 2

Nonverbal Behavior

Answer 2

NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR – Nonverbal behavior is often the first clue to what clients are feeling underneath the language they use. Your ability to observe will help you anticipate and understand what is happening with your client.

• If a client breaks eye contact and/or shifts hands or body, “something” is happening.
  
  • The client may find the topic uncomfortable, or may not like what you just said.
• Your vocal tone, perhaps more than anything else you do, conveys the emotional dimensions of your words and body.
  
  • The voice of the therapist, regardless of what is being said, should be warm, professional—competent, and free from fear.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS – facial expressions and smiling are good indicators of your warmth and caring.

• But be aware of cultural preferences with regard to facial expression.

Question 3

Body Language

Answer 3

BODY LANGUAGE – will often reveal the true feelings of the client even when they are unwilling (or unable) to share the details of their emotions verbally.

• Particularly important are discrepancies in nonverbal behavior.
  
  • When body language disagrees with the verbal stories the client is telling, the body language is usually the one telling the truth.
    
    • Hand gestures may give you an indication of how you and the client are organizing things.
      
      • Random gestures may indicate confusion
      • Someone seeking to control things may move hands in straight lines and point fingers authoritatively.
      • Smooth, flowing gestures, on the other hand, may point to agreement, particularly those in harmony with the gestures of others (e.g. the counselor),
• Often people who are communicating well MIRROR each other’s body language.
  
  • MOVEMENT SYNCHRONY – When empathy is high, client and counselor may unconsciously move in sync.
• MOVEMENT COMPLEMENTARITY – paired movements that may not be identical, but still harmonious.
  
  • For instance, one person talks, and the other nods in agreement.
• Counselors deliberately “mirror” their clients to improve a sense of synchrony (but don’t be too obvious about it).
  
  • Experience shows that matching body language, breathing rates, and keywords of the client can heighten the counselor’s understanding of how the client perceives and experiences the world.
  • Movement synchrony occurs when client and counselor demonstrate body movements that mirror one another, suggesting the presence of an empathic, authentic relationship.

ACCULTURATION – the degree to which an individual has adopted the norms or standard way of behaving in a given culture.

• American culture tends to favor more eye contact, more questions, and a more assertive vocal tone than Asian cultures, but less touching and more required personal space than Latino cultures.
• Thus, being acutely aware of your client’s cultural background is critical in order to avoid offending them or making them uncomfortable.

Acculturation is a fundamental concept of anthropology with significant relevance for the session.

Question 4

Verbal Behavior

Answer 4

VERBAL BEHAVIOR –

KEY WORDS – If you listen carefully to clients, you will find that certain words appear again and again in their descriptions of situations.

• Noting their key words and helping them explore the facts, feelings, and meanings underlying those words may be useful.
• Key descriptive words are often the constructs by which a client organizes the world; these words may reveal underlying meanings.
  
  • Verbal underlining through vocal emphasis is another helpful clue in determining what is most important to a client.
  • Through intonation and volume, clients tend to stress the single words or phrases that are most closely related to central issues for discussion.
  • Joining clients by using their key words facilitates your understanding and communication with them. If their words are negative and self-demeaning, reflect those perceptions early in the session but later help them use more positive descriptions of the same situations or events.
  • Help the client change from “I can’t” to “I can.”
• Many clients will demonstrate problems of verbal tracking and selective attention. They may either stay on a single topic to the exclusion of other issues or change the topic, either subtly or abruptly, when they want to avoid talking about a difficult issue.
  
  • Observing the changes in client’s topic is essential.
  • At times it may be helpful to comment—for instance, “A few minutes ago we were talking about X.”
  • Another possibility is to follow up that observation by asking how the client might explain the shift in topic.

Question 5

Concreteness Versus Abstraction

Answer 5

CONCRETENESS VERSUS ABSTRACTION – Communication runs in a spectrum from the most concrete at the bottom to the most abstract at the top. Clients may converse at any point on this spectrum. Those who converse at the extremes of the spectrum will need to be guided to a more balanced approach in order to extract meaningful information from them from both a concrete/fact-based perspective as well as an emotional/philosophical perspective. Both aspects of the spectrum are necessary to get a full picture of the client’s story.

• Clients who talk with a CONCRETE/situational style are skilled at providing specifics and examples of their concerns and problems.
  
  • However, these clients may have difficulty reflecting on themselves and their situations and seeing patterns in their lives.
    
    • The language of these clients forms the foundation or “bottom” of the abstraction ladder.
  • To help concrete clients become more abstract and pattern-oriented, just asking them to reflect on their story may not work. More direct questions may be needed to help concrete clients step back and reflect on their stories.
    
    • EX: “What one thing do you remember most about this story?” “What did you like best about what happened?”
• Clients who are more ABSTRACT in their thinking and conversing, on the other hand, have strengths in self-analysis and reflection.
  
  • However, getting specific concrete details from them as to what is actually going on may be difficult.
    
    • They are at the “top” of the Abstraction ladder.
  • To help abstract/formal clients to become more concrete (“Could you give me an example?”).
• Neither concrete nor abstract is “best.” Both are necessary for full communication.

Question 6

“I” Statements and “Other” Statements

Answer 6

“I” STATEMENTS AND “OTHER” STATEMENTS – Clients’ ownership and responsibility for issues will often be shown in their “I” and “other” statements. Consider the following Example:

“I’m not studying enough. I should work harder.”

versus

“The racist insults we get on this campus make it nearly impossible to study.”

“I feel terrible. If only I could do more to help. I try so hard.”

versus

“Dad’s an alcoholic. Everyone suffers.”

“I’m at fault. I shouldn’t have worn that dress. It may have been too sexy.”

versus

“No, women should be free to wear whatever they wish.”

• Some of them represent positive “I” and “other” statements; some are negative.
• Some clients attribute their difficulties solely to themselves; others see the outside world as the issue.
  
  • A woman may be sexually harassed and see clearly that others and the environment are at fault; another woman will feel that somehow she provoked the incident.
• Counselors need to help individuals look at their issues but also help them consider how these concerns relate to others and the surrounding environment.
  
  • There is a need to balance internal and external responsibility for issues.
• The balance of “I” and “other” statements is a useful goal.

Question 7

Discrepancies, Mixed Messages, and Conflict

Answer 7

DISCREPANCIES, MIXED MESSAGES, AND CONFLICT – We all live with contradiction, conflict, incongruity, and discrepancies that provide challenges. This is what brings most clients to counseling and therapy

• Once the client is relatively comfortable a major task of the counselor is to identify basic discrepancies, mixed messages, conflicts, or incongruities in the client’s behavior and life.
• A common goal in most sessions is to assist clients in working through discrepancies and conflict, but first, these have to be identified clearly.

CONFLICT INTERNAL TO THE CLIENT:

• Discrepancies in Verbal Statements. In a single sentence, a client may express two completely contradictory ideas.
  
  • EX: “My son is perfect, but he just doesn’t respect me”
    
    • It is helpful to aid others in understanding their ambivalences. (mixed feelings)
• Discrepancies Between Statements and Nonverbal Behavior. Very important are discrepancies between what one says and what one does.
  
  • EX: A parent may talk of love for a child but be guilty of child abuse.

CONFLICT BETWEEN THE CLIENT AND THE EXTERNAL WORLD:

• Discrepancies and Conflict Between People
  
  • EX: “I cannot tolerate my neighbors.”
    
    • Noting interpersonal conflict is a key task of the counselor or psychotherapist.
• Discrepancies Between a Client and a Situation.
  
  • EX: “I want to be admitted to medical school, but I didn’t make it.”
    
    • The client’s ideal world is often incongruent with reality.
    • Discrimination, heterosexism, sexism, and ableism represent situational discrepancies.

DISCREPANCIES IN GOALS – Clients often seek incompatible goals.

• EX: The client may want approval of friends as well as academic success, but winning acceptance from peers may mean that academic performance suffers,

DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN YOU AND THE CLIENT –

• Help clients understand their ambivalences (mixed feelings or contradictory ideas) by summarizing their conflict—the client’s own thoughts and conflicting issues.
  
  • The summary of the conflict can then be followed by a variation of the basic challenge, such as “I hear you saying one side of the issue is (insert appropriate comment representing part of the conflict or discrepancy). But, I also hear the other side as (insert the opposing side of the conflict).”
    
    • Then, through further listening and observation, the client may come up with his own unique solution.

Question 8

Summary

Answer 8

SUMMARY:

Importance of Observation. The self-aware counselor is constantly aware of the client and of the here-and-now interaction in the session.

• Clients tell us about their world by nonverbal and verbal means.
• Observation skills are critical in determining how the client interprets the world.

Nonverbal Behavior – Shifts in body language may indicate client interest or discomfort. A client may lean forward, indicating excitement about an idea, or cross his or her arms to close it off.

• Facial expressions are especially important.

Verbal Behavior. Noting patterns of verbal tracking for both you and the client is particularly important.

• At what point does the topic change, and who initiates the change?
• Where is the client on the abstraction ladder?
• If the client is concrete, are you matching his or her language?
• Is the client making “I” statements or “other” statements?
• Do the client’s negative statements become more positive as counseling progresses?
• Clients tend to use certain key words to describe their behavior and situations; noting these descriptive words and repetitive themes is helpful.

Discrepancies – Conflict, discrepancies, incongruities, mixed messages, and contradictions are manifest in many and perhaps all sessions.

• Identify these discrepancies, name them appropriately.
• Sometimes feed them back to the client to make them aware of them.
• These discrepancies may be:
  
  • between nonverbal behaviors
  • between two statements
  • between what clients say and what they do
  • between incompatible goals.
  • between people
  • between a client and a situation.
  • And your own behaviors may be positively or negatively discrepant.

Careful observation of the session is basic. What can you see, hear, and feel of the client’s world? Note your impact on the client: How does what you say change or relate to the client’s behavior? Use these data to adjust your microskill technique.

Multicultural Issues – Note individual and cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal behavior. Always remember that some individuals and some cultures may have a different meaning for a movement or use of language from your own personal meaning.

Mirroring – When two people are talking together and communicating well, they often exhibit movement synchrony or movement complementarity in that their bodies move in a harmonious fashion.

• Counselors sometimes mirror their clients deliberatively.
• Brain regions parallel what we observe in client nonverbal behavior.

Concreteness Versus Abstraction.

• Clients who talk with a concrete/situational style are skilled at providing specifics and examples of their concerns and problems.
  
  • They may have difficulty reflecting on themselves and their situations and seeing patterns in their lives.
• Clients who are more abstract and formal operational have strengths in self-analysis and are often skilled at reflecting on their issues.
  
  • They may experience difficulty reporting the concretes and specifics of what is actually going on.
• Neither concrete nor abstract is “best.” Both are necessary for full communication.