Clincal Interviewing (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2017) Flashcards
Clinical interview
Clinical interview is a common phrase used to identify an initial and sometimes ongoing contact between a professional clinician and a client
Clinical interviewing
Clinical interviewing is a flexible procedure that mental health professionals from many different disciplines used to initiate treatment
Semi – clinical interview
Semi – clinical interview combine tightly standardized, interview questions with unstandardized or spontaneous questioning
Structured clinical interviews
 structured, clinical interviews are standardized and involved, asking the same questions and the same order with every client
Unstructured clinical interviews i
Unstructured clinical interviews, involve the subjective in spontaneous relational experience.. less structured
Formal definitions of clinical interviews
Formal definitions of the clinical interview, emphasize its two primary functions or goals: assessment and helping (including referral)
The nature of an ethical, professional relationship
Using an explicit form consent, process, ensures that clients understand and have freely consented to treatment
The nature of an ethical, professional relationship
Professional, relationships, involve power differentials; the professional is an authority figure with specialized experience. Clients are in need of this expertise.
Why clients choose therapy
 For one of the following reasons:
The client is experiencing subjective distress, discontent, or problem that’s limiting in someway
Someone, perhaps a spouse, relative or probation officer, insisted on counseling
Personal growth and development
Collaborative goal, setting
Collaborative goal setting is a common clinical practice that should occur within the course of an initial clinical interview
Therapist as expert
Therapist are culturally, accepted, experts and mental health, and have the responsibility to evaluate clients professionally before proceeding with treatment
Quiet yourself and listening well
To be an effective clinician, you need to quiet yourself and listen to someone else
Adopting a helpful and nonjudgmental attitude towards all clients
Having and holding a non-judgmental attitude – toward all clients – he’s impossible. this is because clients will engage in behaviors and hold values and start contrast to your behaviors and values. The expectation remains the same: maintain a helpful and non-judgmental attitude towards all clients.
Learning diagnostic and assessment skills
The primary purpose of assessment and diagnosis is to aid and treatment planning necessary to help clients move from a problem, state towards solution or growth
Multicultural competence
Culture is ubiquitous
Cultural self-awareness
White privilege is defined as “ earned assets”
Culture, specific, expertise
Culture – specific expertise speaks to the need of clinicians to learn skills for working effectively with different minority populations
Scientific minded
Scientific mindedness involves forming and testing hypothesis about client culture, rather than coming to premature conclusions.
Dynamic sizing
Dynamic sizing is a complex multicultural concept that guides clinicians on when they should, and should not make generalizations based on an individual clients belonging to a specific cultural group
 micro aggression
Micro aggressions are brief and commonplace and occur in every day settings, it involves verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostility, derogatory, or negative statements about a group or person
Advocacy
Advocacy is a process through which clinicians become aware of social or cultural barriers that clients face and work with clients to constructively address those barriers
Multicultural humility
Multicultural humility requires that clinicians need to be able to let go of their cultural perspective and value the different perspective of their clients
 It also includes three dimensions:
And other Dash orientation instead of a self orientation
Respect for others, in their values and ways of being
An attitude that includes a lack of priority
Time
Clinical interviews typically last 50 minutes. This time. Though arbitrary, is convenient.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality refers to both an ethical duty to keep client, identity and disclosure, secret and illegal duty to honor the fiduciary relationship with a client
Also, don’t forget the limits to confidentiality
Inform consent
Inform consent involves the ethical and sometimes legal mandate to inform clients about the nature of their treatment
Documentation procedures
Soap, notes – subjective, objective, assessment and plan.
Dap notes – data, assessment, and plan 
Invisibility syndrome
Invisibility syndrome refers to white cultures, fear based tendencies to marginalized black males, and treat them as if they were invisible
Stages of a clinical interview
- The introduction
- The opening
- The body
- The closing
- The termination
Tasks common to interviews
Putting the patient
Eliciting information
Maintaining control
Maintaining rapport
Bringing Closure
Rapport
Rapport is defined as an especially harmonious connection with another person; disconnection may occur immediately or required extended interaction
Role induction
Role Induction involves educating clients about their role and what to expect in the assessment and treatment process
The opening
The opening is a nondirective or unstructured interview stage lasting about 5 to 8 minutes… consider an opening statement. The opening statement is your first direct inquiry into the clients concerns.
The body
Tia is the longest clinical interviewing stage. It’s where most of the assessment and helping activities are implemented.
During this stage, the following are discussed or accomplished :
The purpose of the interview
You’re setting
Your theoretical orient
And the clients problems or needs
Applying the four print
- Is the sadness adversely affecting the clients, interpersonal relationships, ability to function at work, or enjoyment of recreational activities
- Is the sadness disturbing or upsetting to the client?
- Is the sadness particularly disturbing to other people people in the client’s environment?
- Is there a rational or cultural or medical explanation for cultural or medical explanation for the client’s sadness?
Reassuring and supporting your clients
‘You coveted lots of ground today.
‘Thanks for being open and sharing with me.
‘I appreciate your efforts in telling me about yourself
Case formulation
Case formulation involves integrating assessment information with a theoretically supported or evidence-based approach to guide subsequent therapeutic work.
** Case formulation is the explanation for why you’ve chosen your particular treatment plan.
Terminating
Terminating or the ending of the clinic interview occurs as both parties acknowledge that the meeting is over.
The generic mental status exam
Appearance
Behavior/psychomotor
Attitude toward examiner
Affect and mood
Speech and thought
Perceptual disturbances
Orientation and consciousness
Memory and intelligence
Reliability, judgment, and insight
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are false sensory impressions or experiences.
Hallucinations occur in any sensory modality: visual, auditory, olfactory , gustatory , and tactile 
Why mental disorder and not mental illness?
Disorder
 The term disorder implies the existence of a clinically recognizable set of symptoms or behaviors associated in most cases with distress and interference with personal functions
The ICD and DSM, both explicitly and intentionally use, and plan to continue using the term mental disorder
Syndrome
A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individuals, cognition, emotional regulation or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological or developmental processes underlying mental functioning
Why diagnose?
 Accurate diagnosis improves, predict client prognosis
Treatments can be developed for specific diagnoses
Communication with other professionals and third-party payers can be more efficient
Research on the detection, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders is facilitated
Clinicians are encouraged to closely observe, and monitor specific symptoms and diagnostic indicators
*** diagnosis implies hope, and can be a big relief to be diagnosis since I have their problems named categorized and defined
Potential signs of resistance
Talking too much
Talking to little
Arriving late
Arriving early
Being unprepared for psychotherapy
Being overprepared for psychotherapy 
