A well-formed and effective interview session incorporates listening and focusing skills into five stages: the empathic relationship, story and strengths, goals, restory, and action. In the role play exercise, I followed the five-stage model, integrating these skills into each stage. First, in our introductions, I established rapport and personalized the session by repeating back my client’s name. Throughout the interview, I continued to build this empathic relationship by practicing attending behaviors, such as maintaining eye contact and leaning forward slightly. Second, focusing on my use of questioning, I drew out my client’s story. I began the session with an open question to facilitate the discussion. Throughout, I used closed questions …show more content…
For example, I said: “It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed; could you tell me more about that?” I also used paraphrasing skills. For instance, when my client listed the things that were overwhelming her, I broke down the list, restating the main concerns; however, I further added my own words to acknowledge the difficulty in balancing these commitments. Encouraging, paraphrasing, and reflecting benefitted this stage of the session by facilitating and clarifying conversation. Third, my client and I defined her goals. I used an open-ended question to elicit my client’s thoughts on appropriate goals. In this stage, I practiced focusing skills by using a mutual focus. I emphasized that we could work on her goals and that, together, we could brainstorm ways to address her concerns. I then summarized my client’s current concerns and preferred outcomes to help her recognize the contrast between them. Fourth, my client and I created a new story by exploring alternatives to her current method of balancing commitments. By briefly using a counselor focus, I also integrated focusing skills in this …show more content…
Additionally, integrating focusing and listening skills helped me to identify important issues, and therefore accurately understand my client. I believe that my use of these skills helped my client to feel understood and acknowledged. Furthermore, I think that taking a mutual focus on goal-setting would have felt reassuring and empowering for my client (since she wasn’t alone, but still had input). While watching the video, I noted that although I reflected the feelings that my client stated, she did not physically express or further explain these emotions. Perhaps, I could have noted and questioned this discrepancy. Additionally, I neglected to mention my client’s strengths until the end of the session. Although this left my client with a positive takeaway, which she later mentioned was beneficial, I could have introduced her strengths earlier in the interview, as well. Overall, the five-stage format of interviewing, with an integration of focusing and listening skills, effectively facilitated our