PSYC-526 Clinical-Counseling Basic Flashcards
Active Listening
Active listening is a pattern of listening that keeps you engaged with your conversation partner in a positive way. It is the process of listening attentively while someone else speaks, paraphrasing and reflecting back what is said, and withholding judgment and advice.
-Building trust and establishing rapport
-Demonstrating concern
-Paraphrasing to show understanding
-Using nonverbal cues that show understanding such as nodding, eye contact, and leaning forward
Brief verbal affirmations like “I see,” “I know,” “Sure,” “Thank you,” or “I understand”
-Asking open-ended questions
-Asking specific questions to seek clarification
-Waiting to disclose your opinion
-Disclosing similar experiences to show understanding
Biopsychosocial
a systematic integration of biological, psychological, and social approaches to the study of mental health and specific mental disorders.
an inter-disciplinary model that looks at the interconnection between biology, psychology, and socio-environmental factors. The model specifically examines how these aspects play a role in topics ranging from health and disease, to human development.
suggests that biological, psychological and social factors are all interlinked and important with regard to promoting health or causing disease.
Capping
Universal skill; moves client away from emotional information and toward more cognitive based discussions, especially if the counselor feels their client’s emotions need to be calmed or regulated.. Therapist asks question that is supposed to lead to cognitive response (e.g., It sounds like you were really sad at that time. What were you thinking when it occurred?”) Also used when terminating therapy and to help the client move away from overly emotive responses
Ex: “Give me a couple words that symbolize the emotion you are showing right now.” Or “So you felt really bad about what you did. What were you thinking in that moment?”
Clarification
to check whether understanding is accurate, or to better understand, the therapist restates an unclear or ambiguous message to clarify the sender’s meaning. This will help the counselor avoid any misconceptions or avoid them having to make any assumptions that could hinder their feedback
Ex: “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by ‘sicker than usual’, what is different now?”
Client expectancies
When a person enters therapy, they should voice their opinions about counseling and their beliefs about treatment. In the beginning, they should be able to communicate with their counselor as to what they expect to get out of counseling. This can help the counselor guide and direct their counseling accordingly.
the patient and therapist will need to be in agreement about the goals of therapy as well as the tasks, which are two critical components of the therapeutic alliance
Confrontation
the therapist makes a statement that draws attention to discrepancies in the client’s words, actions, or story; use own thoughts/wording/emotions as feedback; statement may be direct and straightforward or indirect and subtle; timing is important; often used later in therapy
Ex: “You have been telling me that you want help with this issue and that you are willing to try anything to make it go away, yet you did not do the homework assignment from last week.”
Congruence
Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. This means that self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e. who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image). Therapist should come to therapy in state of congruence while client comes in state of incongruence.
Dual relationships
A therapist cannot enter a therapeutic relationship with a client if the therapist has a close previous relationship with the potential client (family member or friend, or has a close personal relationship with a person close to the potential client due to multiple or dual relationships. This should be avoided as the dual relationship could alter the underlying structure of the therapeutic relationship or disrupt the objectivity of the therapist.
An example would be if a close friend of mine has a child who is beginning to act out in school, and she asked me to counsel him to see what’s going on, I would not be able to because of close/frequent contact in a different role and refer her to someone else.
Encouraging
therapeutic technique used to encourage continued discussion by the client without interrupting or changing the focus. Can be minimal (okay, I see, etc) or nonverbal (nodding, leaning forward, etc.)
Ex: nonverbal - nodding head, eye contact, body language; minimal encourager - “okay” “hmmm” “I see”
Engagement
level of client’s involvement in therapy; can be fostered by the therapist (WEG) as well as client variables; includes: doing homework, active participation - being open, show up to therapy; correlated with successful therapeutic outcomes
Fixed vs. growth mindset
Someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. “the understanding that abilities and understanding can be developed”
On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. a fixed mindset is one that assumes abilities and understanding are relatively fixed. Those with a fixed mindset may not believe that intelligence can be enhanced, or that you either “have it or you don’t” when it comes to abilities and talents.
Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s categorization of 5 motivational needs typically depicted in a pyramid; typically, one must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs; important to consider these needs while assessing what client needs in therapy; suicidality trumps all; client must be motivated to meet these needs; for clinical purposes sometimes will focus on a higher need due to culture/disorder
1) Physiological - breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, excretion
2) Safety - security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, property
3) Love and belonging - friendship, family, sexual intimacy
4) Esteem - self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of /by others
5) Self-actualization - morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts
Holding vs shifting the focus
Holding discussion on topics that are relevant to group members
Shifting the focus when the topics are irrelevant or interesting to only a couple of members
Immediacy
The technique of the counselor speaking openly about something that is occurring in the present moment. therapist gives a statement that reflects his/her own response to something happening in the session at that time
Ex: “As we sit here, I am aware of your mounting frustration and, in turn, I feel frustrated as well.” Or “When I hear you say that, I feel I can understand you better.”
“When I just shared my interpretation of what you were saying I noticed your facial expression changed.”
Interpretation
A term used in psychodynamic theory and developed by Freud, this is the clarification of hidden meaning behind what the client says. this is considered the specific intervention of the analyst and the driving force of therapeutic change.
giving new meaning to experiences, actions or beliefs about self, others, or the way the world works; clarification of hidden meaning; timing is important; they can be threatening, so resistance is expected and interpreted; can be positive, negative or neutral
Ex: “Did you ever consider that you have developed this ability to cut people off emotionally in order to save yourself from getting hurt?” or “One explanation could be that he acts like a child in order to get you to play in the role of parent. He feels good when he is being parented and pampered.”
