SESSION 4

COUNSELING
SESSION &
INTERVIEW
Conducting counseling
sessions and interview sessions
COUNSELING INTERVIEW
SESSION
What to Anticipate in your First
Counseling Interview
 If you are a Client you should expect
questions about:
1. Why you sought counseling
We believe that a particular problem led
you to seek counseling services.
The counselor will be interested to
know your reasons
COUNSELING INTERVIEW
SESSION
2. Your personal history and current
situation
 The counselor will ask you a series of
questions about your life, example your
family history and your family current
situation
3. Your current symptoms
The counselor will wish to know if there are
other symptoms of your problem, example if
your problem affects your work
performance.
COUNSELING INTERVIEW
SESSION
4. Do not just sit there
 Counseling is a shared
relationship.
 Yu should take an active part in
the session so as to find
counseling valuable.
COUNSELING INTERVIEW
SESSION
 So to make the first counseling
session successful, the client
should:
 Be open. Remember counselors
are trained to ask questions, they
are not mind readers. So you
should always answer their
questions as truly as you can
remember
COUNSELING INTERVIEW
SESSION
Be prepared. Be ready to describe
your problem as clear as possible.
 You can list down all problems and read them
out aloud to help you remember
Ask questions. Ask the counselor
anything you want to know about the
counseling session and ask the
counselor to repeat anything you did
not understand
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
BEGINNING OF AN INTERVIEW
 There are Four types of clients the
counselor can possibly meet at the
beginning of a counseling interview:
The Vague Client
The Reluctant Client
The Client with a specific issue
The Client in a Crisis
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
BEGINNING OF AN INTERVIEW
The Vague Client
 This is a client who is undefined.
 May be due to previous experiences
in counseling, this client decides to
be uncooperative, giving only
closed ended answers or questions
regardless the counselor’s positive
attitude
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
BEGINNING OF AN INTERVIEW
The Reluctant Client
 This is the client who has been told
by parents, teachers, tutors or other
care takers that he must see the
counselor.
 The counselor should be patient
and try to show empathy towards
the client till he is ready to
cooperate
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
BEGINNING OF AN INTERVIEW
The Client with a specific issue
• These clients appear to be the most
straightforward.
• They know their problem and they are
always cooperative
The Client in a Crisis
• Crisis is when a devastating event occurs in
one’s life unexpectedly.
• There is often a great deal of emotion
around panic, anger, fear, or shame.
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
BEGINNING OF AN INTERVIEW
 The counselor has to
assist the client to voice
the extent of his/her fear
or anger in order to
develop his/her ability to
cope with the feelings.
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
EVALUATION STAGE
 There are four types of clients
at the evaluation stage
The Resistant Client
The Bitter Client
The ‘Stuck’ Client
The Unaware Client
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
EVALUATION STAGE
The Resistant Client
• This client is always uncooperative
• Refuses to respond to counselors
questions and remains quiet most of
the time
• Reasons may be fear of change or of
uncovering something difficult,
considerable difficulty in expressing
feelings, or a personal dislike of the
counselor, etc.
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
EVALUATION STAGE
The Bitter Client
• This client is always unresponsive, always
opposing everything from the counselor.
• The client has the ‘What-is-the-use’
attitude
• This may be due to the irrational feeling of
the client. Example feeling of being
discriminated due to race, age, sex,
disability, etc.
• The counselor however has to know that the
issue is really to the client.
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
EVALUATION STAGE
The ‘Stuck’ Client
• This client always seems to return to
the same stinking point, and making
the counselor feel useless
• The counselor is supposed to use his
counseling skills example challenging
the client’s illogical thinking to make
the client move on to the positive
direction
TYPE OF CLIENTS AT THE
EVALUATION STAGE
The Unaware Client
Read about this type of client
 What is its characteristics?
What is the counselors’ role?
CATEGORIES OF COUNSELING
1. Curative Counseling
It is called curative because it aims to
cure, and to heal.
 Curing process comes after the problem
has happened, but sometimes it is given
to reduce intensity of the problem.
 In curative counseling the client is
helped to solve the existing problem or
cope with it successfully. Example in
HIV/AIDS counseling
CATEGORIES OF COUNSELING
ii. Preventive Counseling
 It is the opposite of the former.
 It is done before the problem
happens.
 It reduces the possibility of the
problem to occur, example
counseling against HIV
infections.
CATEGORIES OF COUNSELING
iii. Crisis Counseling
A crisis is a devastating event which
occurs unexpectedly, example being
fired from work, discontinuation from
studies, sudden loss of a loved one, or
loss of property, fatal accidents,
unexpected divorce and separation.
Under crisis counseling, a counselor
should expect that:
CATEGORIES OF COUNSELING
Counseling is a call one does
expectedly or unexpectedly
Crisis counseling is a 24 hours
service
It can be done anywhere, you
cannot tell the client not to come
for a session
CATEGORIES OF COUNSELING
The role of the Counselor in Crisis
counseling
• The counselor should not panic,
instead he should face the issue at hand
• He should not advise but give options
• He is advised not to give false assurance
• He also should try not to withdraw from
the session