Questions for a Counselor

General Questions
What is the problem from your point of view?
 How do you see the problem?
 How would you define the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?
 What are the things or people in your life that are causing problems for you?
How does this problem typically make you feel?
 How does this problem typically make you feel?
 How do you feel when a problem pops up unexpectedly?
 Do you feel sad, mad, hopeless, stuck, or something else?
 What else do you feel? Tell me more.
 When you tell me you feel angry, what else do you feel? Disappointed, hurt, betrayed,
lonely, or something else?
What makes the problem better?
 How often do you experience the problem?
 How have you been coping with the problem(s) that brought you into therapy? What have
you tried so far?
 What do you think caused the situation to worsen?
 How does the problem affect how you feel about yourself?
 What avenues have you pursued in the past that have worked well to solve the problem?
 Tell me about a time when you were not experiencing these difficulties.
Overall, how would you describe your mood?
 Describe your typical daily mood. Is your mood like a roller coaster, or is it pretty
steady?
 What energizes you and makes you feel more upbeat?
 What brings you down or makes you feel blue?
 How do you typically handle irritations, aggravations, and frustrations? Do you get mad
easily? How does your anger come out?
 Do you feel mad when you don’t get your way or lose control?

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  How do you get yourself out of a bad mood?
 We all use different strategies to cope. Do you find yourself reaching for caffeine, drugs,
alcohol, sex, shopping, the internet, or something else to make you feel better?
 What have people close to you told you about your moods?
How connected do you feel to the people around you?
 Tell me about the important relationships in your life.
 What was it like growing up in your family?
 What do people keep doing that you dislike, and what do you wish they would change?
 What wrongs have been done to you that you haven’t forgiven?
What positive changes do you want to make in your life?
 On a scale of 0–10, how content are you with your life?
 Do you regularly set positive goals for your work life, your relationships or health, and
relaxation?
 What is your attitude about change?
 What are these goals?
 What keeps happening repeatedly that keeps you from achieving them?

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 Using SFBT Questions
Miracle Questions: Imagine that tonight as you sleep, a miracle occurs in your life. A magical
momentous happening has completely solved this problem and perhaps rippled out to cover and
infinitely improve other areas of your life too. Think for a moment and tell me, how is life going
to be different now? Describe it in detail. What’s the first thing you’ll notice as you wake up in
the morning?
Follow up Questions:
 What do your senses pick up?
 What do you feel?
 What are you doing (in as many aspects of your life as possible)?
 With whom are you doing it?
 Where are you living?
 How much fun are you having?
 How much income are you earning?
 What difference are you making in the world each day?

Homework Assignments:
Do One Thing Differently
Step 1: Think of a time that things did not go well for you and bring to mind the things you
usually do in a problematic situation. Choose to change one thing, such as:
 The timing
 Your body patterns and what you do with your body
 What you say and how you say it
 The location and where it happens
 The order you do things in
When a similar issue comes up again, what part of that problem situation will you do differently
now?
Step 2: Think of something that somebody else does that makes the problem better or think of
something that you have done in the past that made things go better.
 Think of something that somebody else does that works to make things go better.
 What is the person’s name?
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  What do they do that you will try?
 Think of something that you have done in the past that helped make things go better.
What did you do that you will do next time?
Step 3: Feelings are a vital source of information but do not have to determine your actions. You
always have a choice, particularly when your previous experience shows that your pattern of
emotional reactions causes behavior that undermines your future goals.
 Think of a feeling that used to get you into trouble, e.g., anger, sadness, etc.
 What feeling do you want to stop getting you into trouble?
 Think of what information that feeling is telling you.
 What does the feeling suggest you should do that would help things go better?
Step 4: Change what you focus on. What you pay attention to tends to loom larger, and you will
notice it more. To solve a problem, try changing your focus or your perspective.
 Think of something that you are focusing on too much.
 What gets you into trouble when you focus on it too much?
 Think of something that you will focus on instead.
 What will you focus on that will not get you into trouble?
Step 5: Imagine a future when you are not having the problem you are having right now. Work
backward to figure out what you could do now to make that future come true.
 Think of what will be different for you in the future when things are going better.
 How will things be different?
 Think of one thing that you would be doing differently before things could go better in
the future.
 What one thing will you do differently?
Step 6: Sometimes, people with problems talk about what other people are doing that makes
things worse for them, and they talk about why it is not possible to do better. Remember that
there are aspects of your life where you do have control and can change your story.
 Talk about times when the problem was not happening and what you were doing.
 Think of a time when you were not having the problem that is bothering you.
 Tell me about that time.
Step 7: Focus on facts and actions away from interpretations.

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 Talk about things you can see, not about what you believe the other person was thinking
or feeling because we do not know that.
 When you make a complaint, talk about the action that you do not like.
 When you make a request, talk about what action you want the person to do.
 When you praise someone, talk about what action you liked.

Narrative Therapy
Purpose Example

Deconstructive

Show the clients that stories are

Who told you “real men” don’t pay
constructed and narratives exist in larger
attention to their health?
systems.

Renaming

What would you call this problem

Support clients’ self-efficacy by sharing
of not paying attention to your
authorship and expertise with them.
diabetes?

Perspective

Help clients explore other people’s Does everyone agree that you’re not
viewpoints, particularly their views of the capable of managing your weight,
client. or does someone have another idea?

Opening space

Help clients bring hopeful thoughts and Are there ever times when the issue
actions to the surface and be explored; you’re struggling with doesn’t
highlight clients’ efficacy regarding the control you? Tell me about that
problem. time.

Hypothetical (Miracle)

Suppose a miracle happened and

Stimulate clients’ imagination to envision
your problem was solved. How
different, more hopeful futures.
would your life be different?

Preference

Establish clients’ preferences and check How did you feel when you got that
in to make sure that they prefer the story promotion? Is this something you
of success to the problem story. really want?

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 Story development

Tell me more about how you were

Explore and linger over all the elements
able to resist fast food. What
of the preferred story.
exactly happened?

Redescription

Help client recognize preferred qualities What does this say about you as a
in themselves and probe about the person that you were able to test
implications for their sense of identity your blood sugar daily last week?

Bifurcation

Is the event you’re describing on

Encourage clients to align themselves
the side of not caring or against not
against the problem.
caring?

Stopper

Refocus the client when they seem to be

Which story are you telling now?
getting stuck in the old story.

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 Using the ABC-CBT Model Questions
The ABC model can be used as a functional assessment where behavior is shaped by antecedents
and followed by consequences (Ellis & MacLaren, 1998).
The antecedent occurs before a behavior and may be a trigger for a particular reaction in the
patient and can both increase and decrease a particular behavior. Antecedents, or events that
occur before a behavior, typically elicit emotional and physiological responses.
Antecedents may be affective (an emotion), somatic (a physiological response), behavioral (an
act), or cognitive (a thought). They are also subject to contextual factors (situational) and
relational (interpersonal) factors.
For example, a patient who reports being depressed (behavior) may feel bad when they are alone
at home late at night (contextual antecedent) or better when they are around family (relational
antecedent). Consequently, they may feel even more dejected by thinking that they will always
be alone (cognitive antecedent) (Ellis, & MacLaren, 1998).
Below are some questions to help examine antecedents to a particular behavior:
 What were you feeling right before you did that? (Affective)
 What happens to you physically before this happens? Do you feel sick? (Somatic)
 How do you normally act right before this happens? (Behavioral)
 What thoughts go through your mind before this happens? (Cognitive)
 Where and when does this usually happen? (Contextual)
 Do you do this with everyone, or just when you are around certain people? (Relational)
Behavior is any activity, including thoughts or feelings, that the patient exhibits in response to an
antecedent. The questions below help examine a particular behavior:
 How do you feel immediately after this occurs? (Affective)
 Do you have any bodily sensations after this happens, like trembling? (Somatic)
 How do you react after this behavior occurs? (Behavioral)
 What do you think about after this happens? (Cognitive)
 Are you in a different place when this behavior ends? (Contextual)
 Are there any people who make this behavior worse? Make it better? (Relational)
Consequences are events that occur after the behavior and direct the patient to either continue or
discontinue the behavior. Two kinds of consequences are examined in a functional assessment:
short-term and long-term consequences. The questions below help explore the consequences of a
particular behavior:

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  Does this behavior get your attention in some way?
 What good things happen as a result of this behavior?
 Does this help you in some way?
 Do you feel a certain rush from doing this?
 Does this behavior help you avoid something you don’t want to do?
The goal of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is to help the client develop more balanced thinking
about the situation and combat their automatic thoughts and reactions. The questions below can
help the client challenge automatic thoughts:
 What evidence is there that this thought is true?
 What evidence is there that this thought is not true?
 What would I tell someone I loved if they were in this situation and had these thoughts?
 If my automatic thought is true, what is the worst that could happen?
 If my automatic thought is true, what is the best thing that could happen?
Once the evidence has been generated, we want to combine it to form a more balanced thought.
This thought will likely be much longer and more nuanced than the original emotionally charged
thought. The questions below can help the client create a more balanced thought:
 What is a more balanced view that more accurately reflects the facts?
 Is there an alternative way of thinking about the situation?
 Can someone I trust understand this situation in a different way?
In the final step, ask the client to rate the believability of the alternative thought on a scale of 0–
100. If the thought is not more than 50 believable, more work is needed to identify an alternative
view. Go back to the evidence and keep working.

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 Learning Disability:
Step 1: Eliminating Factors other than SLD that could impact academic performance

When assessing for indicators of a Specific Learning Disability the first step in the process is to
eliminate other factors that may be impacting the student’s ability to learn, i.e. we are exploring
in the first instance to rule out Specific Learning Disabilities. The questions the disability
practitioner asks at this stage will assist them to determine whether further exploration of SLD is
required. It is also important to note that a person with an SLD may also experience a co-existing
difficulty such as English as a second language, hearing or vision impairment, poor mental health
– explore these areas with this in mind.

Questions to ask Notes

Did you have extended absences in the early

years of schooling (when foundation literacy
skills are taught and developed – If so did you
receive catch up tutoring?

YES missed school and did not feel they

caught up (indicator of gaps in learning,
explore further This may not be a specific
learning disability).

Did you experience poor health / illness and

do or have you taken medication that may
have impacted learning?

YES (Explore further, was learning impacted

after illness or since medication? This may
not be a specific learning disability).

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Were you consistently exposed to social and
environmental factors that could impact
learning, for example: poor diet, inadequate
sleep, stressful home environment, anxiety?

YES (Explore further – consider childhood

experiences –coping with trauma or stress as a
child can detract from academic learning -
This may not be a specific learning
disability).

Have you had eye sight and hearing tested?

NO (Adults can generally provide enough

detail to rule out vision or hearing as a
primary factor in learning difficulties –
however where there is some uncertainty
recommending a vision and hearing
assessment may be of benefit).

Have you been involved in any serious

accident that may have impacted your
learning?

YES (Explore further, did ability to learn

change after the accident? The learning
difficulties may be related to an acquired
brain injury).

Have you been diagnosed with a medical or

mental health condition or other disability
(Other than Specific Learning Disability) that
impacts your learning?

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YES (Explore further. Note that particular
medications can impact concentration,
comprehension and memory – explore for
onset of learning difficulties with a diagnosis
other than SLD).

Is English your first language? If not – are the

learning difficulties apparent in your first
language?

YES (If learning difficulties have been

consistent across languages further
exploration for SLD is required).

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 Step 2. Self-Reporting Indicators of a Specific Learning Disability

A number of studies have assessed the validity of interview with adults as a means of
determining reading difficulties, with research highlighting that the accuracy of retrospective
self-reporting correlates well with formal measures of word recognition and learning difficulties.

The following questionnaire developed by 2Smythe and Everatt, (2001) targets literacy skills,
word finding and organisation and is broadly used as a self-reporting questionnaire for specific
learning disabilities, with high accuracy in predicting the need for further assessment in the area
of dyslexia. Please note: It is not recommended that the questionnaire is used by disability
practitioners without exploration and clarification that encourages the student to provide
examples of their experiences with each question. This is important information that can guide
the steps for intervention through accommodations.

Most of Tota
Rarely Occasionally Often
the time l
Do you confuse visually similar words
1 3 6 9 12
such as cat and cot?
Notes

Do you lose your place or miss out lines

2 2 4 6 8
when reading?
Notes

Do you confuse the names of objects,

3 1 2 3 4
for example, table for chair?
Notes

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 Do you have trouble telling left from 1 2 3 4
4
right?
Notes

Is map reading or finding your way to a

5 1 2 3 4
strange place confusing?
Notes

Do you re-read paragraphs to

6 1 2 3 4
understand them?
Notes

Do you get confused when given

7 1 2 3 4
several instructions at once?
Notes

Do you make mistakes when taking

8 1 2 3 4
down telephone messages?
Notes

Do you find it difficult to find the right

9 1 2 3 4
word to say?
Notes

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 How often do you think of creative
10 1 2 3 4
solutions to problems?
Notes

Very Tota
Easy Challenging Difficult
Difficult l
How easy do you find it is to sound out
11 3 6 9 12
words such as e / le / phant?
Notes

When writing, do you find it difficult to

12 2 4 6 8
organise your thoughts on paper?
Notes

Did you learn your multiplication tables

13 2 4 6 8
easily?
Notes

How easy do you find it to recite the

14 1 2 3 4
alphabet?
Notes

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15 How hard do you find it to read aloud? 1 2 3 4

Notes

Total
Name Date
Score

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 Research Notes (The Adult Checklist was trialled on people who
Score Indication had formal diagnosis of dyslexia and people who had no
diagnosis to validate the correlation of the questions with the
likelihood of indicators of dyslexia).

No individual who was diagnosed as dyslexic through a full

Probably Non- assessment was found to have scored less than 45 on this
Less than 45
Dyslexic assessment and therefore it is unlikely that if a person scores
under 45, they will be dyslexic.

Showing signs Most of the research participants who were in this category
45 – 60
consistent with showed signs of being at least moderately dyslexic.
mild dyslexia

All of those who recorded scores of more than 60, were

Signs consistent previously diagnosed as moderately or severely dyslexic.
Greater than
with moderate or Therefore, we would suggest that a score greater than 60
60
severe dyslexia suggests a high likelihood of moderate or severe dyslexia with
formal assessment recommended.

Smythe I, Everatt J. 2001. Adult Checklist. Retrieved from

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/common/ckeditor/filemanager/us
erfiles/Adult-Checklist.pdf,

Lindgren SA, Laine M. (2007).The adaptation of an adult group screening test for dyslexia into
Finland-Swedish:Normative data
for university students and the effects of language background on test performance. Scand J
Psychol;48(5):419–432.
2
Smythe I, Everatt J. 2001. Adult Checklist. Retrieved from
http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/common/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/Adult-Checklist.pdf

Download NCERT textbooks.

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:

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