SWK COUNSELING
2. OBSERVATION SKILLS
COUNSELING SKILLS
1. ATTENDING BEHAVIOR
Attending: fully engaging in listening as a
client communicates with you. You will
communicate your full engagement through
a number of verbal and nonverbal
behaviors.
● Attending is equally important in the
last session as it is in the first.
● Attending behavior is really about
listening with your whole being.
Eye contact + body posture/orientation +
client’s verbal content/voice +
counseling environment = ATTENDING
EYE CONTACT - with the intent of raising
your awareness of gaze in a communicative
interaction with another person.
BODY POSTURE AND ORIENTATION -
Orienting your body toward your client and
sitting with an open posture by not folding
your arms across your torso will
communicate openness to your client.
leaning in slightly toward the client also can
communicate interest and concern for him
or her.
ROOM ARRANGEMENT - physical
environment of the office or room a few
studies and my own clinical experience
have suggested that mindful use of desks
and tables, availability of comfortable chairs,
and the type of lighting may be conducive to
establishing rapport with clients.
VERBAL BEHAVIOR (Following the client’s
lead) - consisting of following your client's
lead rather than introducing new topic
directions, and paralinguistics.
Paralinguistics refers to aspects of your
nonverbal behavior that are conveyed
through speech but are completely separate
from the verbal content.
● Emphasizes learning how to notice
the vast range of things your client is
doing and saying that can be
sources of information about him or
her.
● CLIENT OBSERVATION: is about
noticing obvious and subtle
behaviors that your client is
demonstrating
As you observe behavior being exhibited by
the client, remember that your impression
and sense of him or her is only a
hypothesis, not an absolute, and then
continue to observe and determine the
degree of accuracy of your hypotheses.
NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOR - Facial
Expression and Body Movement
PARAPERAL BEHAVIOR- Listen to the
way he or she is speaking.
VERBAL BEHAVIOR - in observing client
verbal behavior is what the client is not
saying
3. PARAPHRASING
The focus is about to shift to counselors’
spoken responses that facilitate further
depth and development of the conversation
with the client.
Is the heart of active listening.
Paraphrasing is an effective way of having a
true verbal interchange with another person
while communicating your attentiveness.
4 Components of Paraphrase:
● Recall the message
● Identify the essential content
● Translate the content into the
counselors word, and
● Check out, that is, receive
verification from the client as to
accuracy.
SILENCE: There is a time for talking and a
time for silence.
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Client Content - refers to his or her story,
meaning the topics and issues he or she is
bringing to the session.
The client affects the feelings and internal
emotional experiences in the context of the
story.
Questioning takes us further into the realm
of counselor directiveness; the questions
you ask, if ask any, will most definitely steer
the focus of your interaction with your client
in a particular direction.
QUESTIONS: must be used with
mindfulness, for a number of reasons.
It is quite important that when you use
questioning in a counseling session, you do
so with a clear and specific intent, rather
than relying on questions as an easy way to
keep your client talking.
open question is one that will likely result
in a person answering with a lengthy
response. The answer to an open question
is usually not one that can be given in a
single word.
open questions will result in the client
continuing to talk and giving you more
material, some of which may be pertinent to
the counseling focus, and some of which
may not.
open-ended question stems, "what"
questions are likely to result in a person
giving facts and details, whereas "how"
questions are more likely to yield process
or sequence information (Ivey & Ivey, 2007).
closed questions seek a specific
response, often one that can be offered in a
single word or two.
Novice counselors may erroneously assume
that in a counseling session, open
questions are always better than closed
questions. This is not necessarily true; in
some circumstances closed questions are
preferable.
The difference between open and closed
questions. Open questions tend to elicit
expanded verbalizations, whereas closed
questions can be answered in a word or
two.
We further identified several specific
strategies that will minimize the potential
damage caused by excessive or
inappropriate questioning. Those
strategies include
1.being aware of your para verbals
2.asking your questions in a soft, slow
manner;
3.asking only one question at a time and
4.paraphrasing or reflecting on the client's
response before asking another; 5.avoiding
asking "why?" questions.
FEELING REFLECTION
● a counselor statement that extracts
and mirrors the emotional elements
of the client's communication.
● feeling, emotion, and affect.
● feeling reflection identifies the effect
being communicated in a client's
message.
● client's affect, he or she is talking
about the client's displayed emotions
● emotions and feelings refer to
one's internal, subjective experience
of emotional arousal, including the
physiological experience, the
physical, and the nonphysical
aspects of having a particular
emotion.
● Reflecting feelings are of
paramount importance! The tone of
your voice, rate of your speech, and
volume of your speech should match
the client's feelings you are
attempting to reflect.
The steps of a feeling reflection are as
follows:
1.Entry Qualifier (Looks like you're feeling.I
hear you expressing.
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2.Feeling identification (There are two
aspects of emotions, both of which are
important to the accuracy of identification.
One is the general category of the feeling
itself, and the other is to choose a word that
correctly corresponds with the intensity
level.)
3.Accuracy Check (Am I hearing you? Did
I get that? Does that fit for you?)
THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELINGS
Some possible reasons a client may
suppress emotions.
1.Fear of Loss of Control
2.Difficulty Verbalizing Emotional
Experiences
3.Complexity or Intensity of Ambivalent
Feelings (uncertainty as to
which approach to follow)
4.Counselor Power And Responsibility
Basic mechanics of a good feeling
reflection. Those elements include:
1.Making a statement that focuses on the
client
2. Accurately identifying the stated or
implied feelings
3.Permitting room for the client to correct
you if your description of the client's
emotional
experience doesn't fit with the client's
subjective experience of those emotions
Basic models of emotion processing:
anger, fear, surprise, disgust, sadness,
contempt
Some of your clients will be fairly willing
and able to explore their feelings with
you; others will not. When a client is
coming for counseling willingly, and yet
seems resistant to acknowledge or process
feelings, there are multiple possible
explanations. Regardless of the reason, it is
extremely important that you use caution
and refrain from pushing too hard. It could
damage your therapeutic relationship with
the client and, even worse, damage your
client and happiness.
defined as making a statement in response
to material your client has shared, which
reflects back to him or her the basic core
beliefs or principles that have been
communicated in his or her verbalizations.
Reflecting meaning can serve several
purposes:
● Raising the client's awareness of his
or her belief system
● Raising awareness of the
interpretations with which he or she
makes sense of the world
● Helping the client shift perspective
from intense emotionality about one
situation to a broader, generalized
perspective that can help lessen the
emotional intensity
● Providing a basis from which you
can offer alternative interpretations
of a situation
ASPECTS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE
IN MEANING-MAKING
1. Spirituality
2. Level of Cognitive Functioning
3. Level of Emotional and Psychosocial
Maturity
4. Resilience
Sometimes it can be enlightening and
empowering for a person to come to the
realization of the meaning he or she is
attaching to a precipitating event. Many of
you probably spend considerable time
thinking about your own meanings, values,
and schemas; Therefore, the meaning
your client imbues in an event might be
completely outside the realm of his or
her awareness.
Reflection of meaning can also be a way
of helping a client move away from intense
emotional experiencing to gain some
distance and self-understanding. This, too,
SWK COUNSELING
can be an empowering process, as it can
help a client acquire a sense of self-control
The essence of Reflection of meaning is
to listen to your client's story and then infer
the core fundamental values or
self-perceptions that are driving his or her
interpretation of the event or situation.
Few points:
1. As you counsel, you will need to reflect
meaning at a level of development
commensurate with your client's stage.
This is a concrete example of the
admonition
some readers may have heard before:
"Start where your client is."
2.Once again, the issue of self-awareness
is paramount. You need to be aware of
what your own meaning-making and
schemas are, and also your own level of eg
development.
3.Recognize that your client may not
share your interpretation of reality and
that the meaning he or she makes of a
situation is every bit as valid to him or her
as your own is to you.
The discrepancies a client exhibits may take
one ofseveral different forms, as noted by
Hill and O'Brien (1999). Discrepancies may
involve:
● Inconsistency between two spoken
statements
● Inconsistency between words and
actions
● Inconsistency between two
behaviors
● Inconsistency between verbalized
emotions and nonverbally expressed
emotions
● Inconsistency between values and
actions
● Inconsistency between reported
perceptions and reported
experiences Inconsistency between
the "real self" and the "ideal self
● Inconsistency in perceptions or
thoughts between the counselor and
client Inconsistency between client's
behavior and societal external
expectations
HOW TO EFFECTIVELY CONFRONT A
CLIENT
1. Timing
a.THE CLIENT'S EMOTIONAL STABILITY
b.THE CLIENT'S EXTERNAL
RESOURCES
c.THE RISKINESS OF THE BEHAVIOR
d.THE CLIENT'S STAGE OF READINESS
FOR CHANGE
2. Carrying Out the Confrontation
a.One aspect involves the words you use
when you confront, and the other is
the para verbal and nonverbal behavior you
exhibit as you are challenging.
3. How You Respond to Your Client's
Response
Observing a client's contradictory behaviors
or thoughts may be a source of frustration
for a counselor. The frustration could be the
result of any of several factors:
● The counselor is very invested in
effectively helping the client.
● The counselor believes that the
source of the conflict and the "right"
solution are obvious.
● The counselor is worried about the
possible risks to which the client is
exposing him- or herself.
● The counselor is tired of the client
continuing to come to counseling
expressing a desire for change, but
persisting in the problematic
behaviors between sessions.
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STRENGTH-BASED PERSPECTIVE
What is Strength-based perspective?
It is a ‘perspective’ that values working with
people and communities in order to build
capacities that can lead to more resilient
communities.
5 SW Perspectives
• SW perspectives are emerging from the
practice and values of social work.
5 key perspectives that define social
work:
Ecosystems perspective - the exchange
between individuals, families, groups and
communities and their environment. It
incorporates Systems Theory that uses
construct analysis on complex activity in the
social environment and together they help
explain how the environment influences
people and people influence their
environment.
Social Justice Perspective - The manner
in which society distributes resources
among its members, including material good
and social benefits, rights and protections
(Birkenmaier, et all, 2014)
Human Rights Perspective - inherent to
humans which allows for fundamental
freedoms that allows for the full
development to fully develop and use their
human qualities (intelligence, talents,
conscience, spiritual, etc.) (UN Human
Rights
The Strengths Perspective - Affirming and
working with the strengths found both in
people seeking help and their environments.
A focus on basic dignity, and the resilience
of people in over- coming obstacles.
The strengths perspective moves one away
from being problem focused to looking at
the possibilities
• Within the pain and trauma one sees the
hope and possibility for transformation.
• Hope is a strong motivator. As it is a belief
that something will be better.
• A “strengths model” (as opposed to
pathology and deficit models) can guide
disaster-related interventions.
• Most disaster survivor’s individual
behavior is organized, controlled, and
adaptive. Survivors often exhibit
selflessness and personal strength.
Essential of the Strengths Perspective
P=promise, possibility, positive
expectations, potential
C=competence, capacities, courage
R=resilience, reserves, resources,
resourcefulness
As Saleeby says...
“It is incumbent on those of us who work
with people to make sure that social
institutions and others even those with good
intentions do not stamp out the yearning or
distort it to the serve the interests and
purpose of others.”
“From the ashes of destruction, mayhem,
and oppression may emerge the human
spirit, the capacity for the heroic. We can
never dismiss the possibility of redemption,
resurrection and regeneration”.
Principles of the Strengths Perspective
1. Every individual, group, family
and community has it own
strengths.
2. Trauma and abuse, illness and
struggle may be injurious but they
may also be sources of
challenges and opportunity.
3. Assume that you do not know the
upper limits of the capacity to
grow and change. Take individual,
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group, and community
aspirations seriously
Hold high our expectations of those we
serve and make allegiance with their hopes,
visions and values.
• Respect for ‘”innate resilience”
A) that people have the ability to change
their perspective, their thinking, and can
change the quality of their life, and B) that
health and wisdom arise from our spiritual
essence.
4. We best serve families by
collaborating with them.
• When we approach families as a helper or
collaborator (having specialized education,
tools, and experience to offer, but open to
the wisdom, knowledge, and experience
that families bring with them) we work with
families rather than on their cases. In the
Strengths Perspective, family’s voices are
heard and valued at all levels of
intervention, including micro, mezzo, and
macro levels, such as in practice with
individuals, families, and groups,
communities, and in policy advocacy.
5. Every environment is full of resources.
• Every environment is full of individuals,
families, informal groups, associations, and
institutions willing to help others. When
given the opportunity, they contribute with
all kinds of assets and resources that others
profoundly need, such as knowledge,
company, special talents, time, and place,
and the like. There are resources,
partnerships, and strengths available in the
community that are ready to be used, while
we engage in policy advocacy and social
action in pursuit of social justice and
structural transformation.
6. Caring, caretaking, and context.
• Human well-being is essentially related to
caring. We should facilitate and assist
families, groups, and communities to care
for their members. The Strengths
Perspective focuses, in a sense, also in
caretaking, since this is related to hope;
“hope realized through the strengthened
sinew of social relationships in family,
neighborhood, community, culture, and
country.” (p. 20).
7. Families have the right to make
mistakes and learn from them.
• Every situation and decision can be
viewed as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Even the decision that may not work best
for families should be regarded by the
helping professional as a learning
opportunity. Rather than penalizing the
family for its decision, allow for discussion
as to what may have been behind the
decision, why the decision was
unsuccessful and what can be done
differently to effect positive outcomes.
8. Know yourself and your family.
• Knowing who you are, your strengths,
cultural values, capacities, biases and
limitations is important to understand when
working with families in need. Your ability or
lack thereof to understand or empathize
with another may be directly related to your
personal experiences and beliefs. In
addition, your ability to learn from and about
the families you engage is critical in
ensuring a successful working relationship.
RESILIENCE
● The ability to bear up in spite of the
ordeals.
● The ability to absorb or resist stress
or shock, and to recover from it.
● A process of continued growth and
articulation of capacities, knowledge,
insights and virtues in meeting the
demands and challenges however
chastening.
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THE COMMUNITY RESILIENCY
MODEL
CRM is based on cutting-edge
neuroscience and teaches six wellness
skills to restore the mind, body, and
spirit to well-being during or after a
traumatic experience. CRM is biologically
based, educating about the autonomic
nervous system and how the body responds
to stress. It is used for self-care for
children, teens, and adults to stabilize
emotions, resulting in more adaptive
thinking when facing emotional and
physical distress. CRM skills can be
learned and used during and after
stressful and traumatic events. They can
be delivered in small doses through
community workshops or individually. CRM
can be delivered by the natural leaders of
communities (ministers, teachers, first
responders and more) and mental health
therapists and medical practitioners. Natural
leaders are individuals who may or may not
have formal education in mental health or
designated leadership roles but are looked
to for guidance because of their embodied
personal qualities of treating others with
respect, compassion, and empathy. They
share their wisdom with equanimity in a way
that encourages and empowers their
community.
A person delivering CRM is called a CRM
guide. CRM guides integrate
psychoeducational materials about the
common reactions after stressful/traumatic
events, including information about the
stress response and the autonomic nervous
system. CRM teaches that many responses
are biologically based and thus are not
about mental weakness. CRM has distilled
the complexity of neuroscience into simple,
understandable concepts. This approach
helps individuals understand the common
human responses to stressful and traumatic
events through a lens of biology. CRM
concepts and skills have been found to
reduce feelings of shame and stigma in
survivors. New meanings about traumatic
life events can emerge with a more realistic
self-appraisal.
CRM helps individuals discern the
difference between sensations of distress
and well-being. Once discernment is made,
a person chooses what to pay attention
to—sensations of distress or sensations of
well-being. Wellness skills are taught to help
the person learn to read the nervous system
and return to a balanced state called the
Resilient Zone or the Zone of Well-Being.
This results in clearer thinking and greater
affect regulation. Current neuroscience has
identified a concept called “interoception.”
Grabbe et al. (2020) state:
Conscious awareness of the body’s internal
state and its perturbations, the ‘felt sense’ or
interoception, is currently under study as a
source of emotion regulation and resiliency.
Interoception, which means ‘looking inside,’
is critical to preventing stress-related
sequelae of trauma…
UNDERSTANDING RESILIENCY IN
TRM AND CRM - THE ZONES
The Resilient Zone is also called the Zone
of Well-Being. Children call it the Okay
Zone. Every person has a Zone of
Well-Being. When you are in your
Resilient Zone, you can think clearly,
handle feelings better, and manage the
sensations inside the body. There are a
variety of emotions you can experience
including happiness, sadness, and
anger. These emotions are naturally
human. When in your zone, you can
manage the emotions from the best part of
yourself. As one little boy once said to one
of our CRM teachers, “You mean I can be
‘Okay sad’ and ‘Okay mad’ and be Okay.”
When you are in your Resilient Zone, there
is a natural rhythm or flow within your
nervous system; just like there is in nature
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with the seasons, the rising and setting of
the sun, the cycles of the moon and the
ocean (Figure 1.1).
When traumatic and/or stressful events
occur, the natural rhythm within the
nervous system can be thrown out of
balance. At times, all of us can be bumped
out of our Resilient Zones and have
challenges handling even small stressors.
Because of stressful or traumatic
experiences, some people may feel bumped
out of their Zone of Well-Being most or all
the time or even stuck in.
reminders are designed to alert us to
potential danger to aid in our protection. The
alerts are set off based on experience,
which means the reminders are different for
each person. For example, for some people
who have been sexually abused, a certain
smell, sound, or body position could be a
reminder that cues a desire to flee, and the
internal sensations of distress can bump the
person out of their Resilient Zone. This is
our nervous system working for our
protection.

one of the zones. When bumped out of

the Resilient Zone, a person can be on
edge (in the High Zone) and/or
depressed and tired (in the Low Zone) or
go between the two. Some people
describe it as like being on a roller coaster.
When we go back and forth between the
High and Low Zones, we may have
problems with our family, work, and
community. CRM and TRM hold no
judgment about the zones. The zones
simply exist and when we become aware of
what bumps us out of the Resilient Zone,
this awareness can help us manage our
thoughts and feelings in more adaptive and
flexible ways with compassion and greater
self-understanding. One of the goals of
CRM and TRM is to help people identify the
sensations, feelings and thoughts
connected to being within their Resilient
Zones and their High or Low Zones. We can
learn to use our skills and strengths to
return to a greater sense of
well-being (Figure 1.2).

To de-weaponize our language, we reduce

using the word “trigger” when we refer to
“reminders” or “cues” of a stressful
event. Reminders or cues can be almost
anything reminding a person of a traumatic
or stressful event (e.g., a smell, sight,
sound, touch, body position). The reminder
can often be outside of awareness. These