AXL ROSE M.

SALAS
Counseling Skills: (Focusing and Following)
(1)
Counselor: Could you tell me what is making it difficult for you to return to your home?
Counselee: Well, it’s difficult to know where to start. I guess things just got to be too much for me. I seem
to be tense all the time.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. (Turn to the side and take notes)
2. (Because you might upset the counselee, avoid looking directly at her)
3. (Look directly at the counselee and, with your eyes, encourage her to continue talking)

(2)
Counselor: Could you tell me about it?
Counselee: I was afraid to go outside the house. Just thinking about going out into the yard made me tense.
I just couldn’t do it.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. (Maintain eye contact with the counselee and smile or nod as she talks)
2. (Look out the window while you listen to the counselee)
3. (Look around the room)

(3)
Counselor: Uhmhmm…
Counselee: It’s not that I don’t want to go out. But when I try to leave the house, I feel anxious and can’t do
it.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. (Avoid the counselee’s anxious gaze)
2. (Maintain varied, natural eye contact to show your interest)
3. (Keep your eyes on the counselee’s eyes at all times to show your interest)

(4)
Counselor: You try to go out, but you can’t.
Counselee: Yes, I want to be able to go to work again and visit people, but I just can’t do it.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. (Sit in a relaxed position and lean toward the counselee)
2. (Sit in an erect, professional manner)
 3. (Sit back, relax, and put your feet on the desk)
(5)
Counselee: It’s so much worse when I try to go out. I get tense and can’t do it, and then I get very depressed
about it.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. (in a rapid, abrupt voice) Tell me how it all started
2. (in a warm, expressive voice ) Tell me how it all started
3. (in a bored voice) Tell me how it all started

(6)
Counselee: Well, it soon became unbearable for me to go into stores or to get my hair cut- to do all the
things I should do.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. Who cut your hair?
2. How do you buy new clothes?
3. All the usual things became unbearable

(7)
Counselee: Yes. When I go out, my stomach gets upset. I get a headache, my throat is tight, and I can’t
breathe.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. How do you think this relates to what happened to you the last time?
2. Well, I fainted in public once too, and I never have those problems
3. Well, I don’t see any reason for you to feel that way. I don’t think other people feel that way.

(8)
Counselee: I don’t know. I guess I’m afraid of both the people and the situations. Right now I stay away from
both, so I can’t really say. I don’t know what else to say.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. You were telling me earlier about not being able to go out to the bank. What happened next?
2. From what you’ve said, I think I know.
3. (Remain silent and wait for the counselee to continue)
(9)
Counselee: Well, as I told you, I stopped going out. Then I found that I couldn’t go out socially or visit with
friends anymore.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. Did your husband complain?
2. It must have been difficult for everyone in your family to make excuses for you all the time
3. And then…

(10)
Counselee: For a while, I couldn’t go out socially unless I’d had a few drinks.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. Could you tell me more about that?
2. What did you drink?
3. Are you an alcoholic?

(11)
Counselee: (looking down at the floor) Well, I…started having…just a few drinks.
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. I’m here to listen. I can’t help you if you won’t tell me everything
2. Maybe we should talk about something else.
3. You find it difficult to tell me about it.

(12)
Counselee: (sits silently for a minute and appears to be thinking)
Choose the most appropriate response:
1. What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?
2. How many drinks do you have during an average day?
3. (sits attentively and waits for the counselee to continue)