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Microskills Video Analysis and Reflection

Naidalys Saez

Abilene Christian University

Marriage and Family Therapy 601 Pre- Internship

Professor Andrew Jamieson

July 11, 2022

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What is likely to be a barrier for you in attending to a client? How will you address this?

Remaining present with the client is the first step to empathetically listening to them.

Where I believe I might have challenges when attending to a patient are my prior judgments and

beliefs. As stated in the personal counseling book, there will be times when the client’s

perspective, opinions, or attitudes conflict with our value systems (Geldard & Geldard, 2012). In

this case, it can impair me from being accepting and understanding of the client because of these

pre-existing judgments I may have. This, in turn, can cause the client to take notice of my

behavior, thus, possibly damaging our relationship since they may not be able to trust me with

certain information for fear that I may judge them for it.

Moreover, the appropriate action I can take to prevent this from happening is to express

to my client my personal beliefs and values (Geldard & Geldard, 2012). Even though it’s

imperative to state my values to the client clearly, there needs to be self-awareness of my belief

systems (Geldard & Geldard, 2012). Understanding and questioning my values to facilitate

someone else’s perspectives and beliefs is vital for forming trust between the clients and me.

Therefore, self-reflection is needed to pave the way for compassion and empathy, which is

fundamental to understanding others better. If I haven’t worked on my struggles and limitations,

how can I help others with theirs? Implementing self-reflection can consequently allow me to

explore and remain open to others' views, along with understanding myself better and learning

from these experiences.

How would you explain client observation skills in one sentence? What is the best way to

master these skills?

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I would define client observation skills as a therapist's ability to perspicaciously observe

the client’s attitudes, expressions, and behaviors. In the client observation video, Dr. Salkil

explains that to make a client observation, you must first be present with the client; this can

either be overt or covert observations during client sessions (Salkil, n.d.). Overt observation is

when the therapist helps the client to gain self-cognizance. An example of overt observation is

presented in the client observation video when the therapist acknowledges the client's stiffness

and asks if he feels frozen (Salkil, n.d.). His partner was exhibiting avoidant behavior by walking

away from him every time they were in an altercation and how she needed time away from him,

which made him feel that she didn’t care about him. Brandon expressed how It had to be her way

regardless of his feelings. Afterward, he was guided by the therapist's question and realized that

it was due to triggers of past trauma of his father’s militant persona being reflected by his current

partner, causing him to ‘freeze’ at that moment.

This is an excellent example of content and process. Content is what happens to the

client, and process is how it affects the client (Salkil, n.d.).The content of this scenario is how

Brandon wants to resolve an issue with his partner, but she flees at the sight of an argument and

needs space from him. Process is when Brandon becomes stiff and freezes from this interaction.

Furthermore, how to master these skills is attending to the client and empathetically listening to

them, along with maintaining empathy and compassion (O’rear, 2014).

Is it okay to use a feeling word that a client has not used? Why or why not?

One of the essential parts of helping clients is determining their emotions and feelings

and reflecting those feelings back to them. (Geldard & Geldard, 2012). Reflection of feelings and

paraphrasing are similar because it pertains to repeating back what the client has said. However,
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they are quite different because it refers to capturing the emotion and repeating it back to them,

while paraphrasing reiterates their thoughts and information back to them (Geldard & Geldard,

2012).

Reflection of feelings is correlated with feeling words, which involves identifying the

emotion the client is currently experiencing. In my opinion, I believe presenting new feeling

words to the client is beneficial to identifying their emotions better. This can have positive long-

term effects because when you understand your feelings, you can more easily locate the root

cause. It helps in problem-solving and becoming more independent in solving issues.

The encouragement, paraphrasing, and summarizing videos showed how each one is

important in therapy sessions. Encouragement is used when you want the client to go deeper into

the conversation (Salkil, n.d.). For example, the therapist asked Brandon how he felt when he

heard his partner's response to wanting to work on things and how shocked he was because he

assumed she didn’t care (Salkil, n.d.). The therapist continues asking how his partner felt about

sharing that information with him (Salkil, n.d.). Thus, the therapist encourages and guides them

to dive more profoundly within themselves to understand each other better with the intent to

resolve these issues and conflicts. These are also examples of open-ended questions, where the

first question leaves him to expand deeper on his feelings and thoughts. In contrast, close-ended

questions are more factual information and shouldn’t be used as often as open-ended questions

(Salkil, n.d.).

When encouraging a client, how should you avoid hollow praise?

As mentioned previously, these microskills are essential for the improvement and

progress of a client. Now, when encouraging a client, hollow praise should be avoided; praise
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should only be used when giving feedback about something from the past (e.g., “excellent job on

that project!”) (Wong, 2014). While on the contrary, encouragement helps develop and inspire

motivation, emotions, cognitions, and behaviors (Wong, 2014, as cited in Azoulay,1999). For

example, “ You have been working hard on that project; continue to work hard because I know

you will excel in the classroom” (Wong, 2014). This said, encouragement expresses a positive

message to the client and intentionally influences the client's attitude and behavior (Wong,

2014). In comparison, praise may not have the capacity to instill confidence, motivation, and

hope in the client, as encouragement can. In conclusion, the therapist must hold the temptation to

praise and consider what it means to encourage someone and begin implementing that in their

sessions with clients.

How do these microskills factor into premature termination? Why is it important to think

about termination at the beginning of therapy?

The therapeutic alliance, also referred to as the therapeutic relationship, is the relationship

between therapist and client (Yoo et al., 2014). Moreover, therapeutic alliance entails how the

therapist and client interact, behave, and engage with one another; along with displaying

empathy, genuineness, and warmth (Traux & Carkhuff, 1976, p. 28). This correlates with the

microskill reflection of feelings, which, as previously explained, means compassionately

listening and understanding the client by reflecting back on what they say and feel. It is well-

accepted that therapeutic alliance is linked to the fulfillment of treatment; thus, premature

termination can result from a weak therapeutic coalition (Yoo et al., 2014). This is why it is

essential to implement these microskills in the client because the client's success depends on it.
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The importance of initiating a conversation about termination at the beginning of therapy

is to set the client's expectations of what they want to achieve in therapy and mentally prepare

them for their final session (Meier & Davis, 2011). Unfortunately, suppose this is not presented

at the beginning of therapy; in that case, some clients could create an unhealthy attachment to

their therapist, avoiding the end of their sessions and possibly endangering the therapist (Meier

& Davis, 2011, p.14).

Overall, what is the most important takeaway from these video clips and why was that

point or concept important to you?

The most crucial concept of the video for me is attending because if there’s no presence

with a client, then there is no client. When a person decides to attend therapy, they want someone

to listen and understand them. If there is any indication to the client that the therapist is not

focusing their attention solely on them and listening to them, then the client might choose a

different therapist who can provide that need for them. In conclusion, being present with the

client is an essential part of therapy and the result of the client's progress. Also, attending is in

conjunction with the other microskills; It all comes together. At its core, attending relates to

empathy and compassionately helping the client in a sensitive moment in their life.
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Reference

‌Azoulay, D. (1999). Encouragement and logical consequences versus rewards and

punishment: A reexamination. Journal of Individual Psychology, 55, 91-99.

Geldard, K., & Geldard, D. (2012). Personal counseling skills: an integrative approach. Charles

C. Thomas.

Meier, S. T., & Davis, S. R. (2011). The elements of counseling. Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

O’Rear,C. (2014) Content Vs. Process. Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/

20141003203500-35949249-content-vs-process/

Salkil, S. (n.d.).Microskills Video Series. Abilene Christian University

Truax, C. B., & Carkhuff, R. R. (1976).Central therapeutic ingredients: Theoretic convergence In

C.B. Traux R.R & Carkhuff,  Toward Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy (pp. 23-

79) Chicago: Aldine Publishing

Wong, Y. J. (2014). The Psychology of Encouragement. The Counseling Psychologist, 43(2),

178–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000014545091

Yoo, H., Bartle-Haring, S., & Gangamma, R. (2016). Predicting premature termination with

alliance at sessions 1 and 3: an exploratory study. Journal of Family Therapy, 38(1), 5–

17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.12031