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Practice II: Interpersonal Skills
SOW 3352
The Interview
Attending and Listening
Nonverbal Communication
All Cultures Have Helpers
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These helpers include neighbors and
community members, organizations, groups to
whom many people turn for advice,
consolation, and concrete resources:
 examples
Culture?
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of helpers in your community? Family?
Older Terms for helpers
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Shamans
Elders
Curanderos
Healers
Wise women
Current day terms?
What are some of the
characteristics /styles of
a helper?
Learning that there is NO ONE
“Right” Way - Each person has a style
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Clinical work is rife with theoretical ambiguities
and clashes over what constitutes best practice.
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While this may be frustrating, in time you will
discover that patiently struggling with ambiguity may
lead to new ideas and new approaches.
Your professional education is designed to teach
you how to evaluate and distinguish among the
many useful ideas and applications in the
context of specific cultures, individuals, families,
groups, and situations.
What is your natural style?
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According to Neukrug and Schwitzer
(2006), natural helpers can be classified
as natural “listeners, analyzers, problem
solvers, or challengers.”
 Natural
listeners are good at “active
listening, empathic understanding, and
rapport building.”
 Analyzers focus on “case conceptualization,
diagnosis, and treatment planning.”
Natural Style continued
 Problem
solvers “tend to be more directive,
attempting to mobilize the person in need to
make decisions, take action and decisively
change behavior.”
 Challengers believe that they “can quickly
push the client into seeing the world in a
different manner, and will often confront clients
through the use of questions, particularly
‘why?’ questions (pp. 4-7).”
 What’s your style?
 Style may inform theory choice. How?
A Note on Social Work Practice and Theory
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To be effective generalists, social workers must be grounded in
a broad range of practice theory
A generalist is able to draw upon any theories or components
of theories and pull them together to create a reasoned and
comprehensive approach to addressing client needs
Psychosocial, developmental and personality theories help us
identify why people do what they do. Examples of theories
learned?
Ecosystems, strengths, and empowerment perspectives give us
frameworks to guide our assessments and practice
Practice theories like cognitive-behavioral therapy guide our
interventions.
Most practitioners use an eclectic mix of theory; however, most
also have a particular theory they favor (even though they may
not identify)
Hearing v. Listening
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Review: hearing v. listening – what’s the
difference?
 Hearing
is physiological act
 Listening is a learned activity
 Listening
is the dynamic process of attaching
meaning to what we hear. Purposeful, selective
listening requires effective attending and shows
respect and concern for the interviewee
 Why
important?
 Give an example of someone who hears you but
does not listen
What are some of the Hallmarks
of a good listener?
An effective listener/interviewer:
 Understands purpose of interview in order to listen for
recurrent and/or dominant themes that may be
related to the purpose
 Good listening requires an assumption and acceptance
of ignorance
 Effective interviewers suspend closure, holding
everything they listen to subject to revision because of
what the client may say next
 Listens carefully in order to be able to
reflect/paraphrase accurately, summarize correctly,
offer appropriate feedback and show respect and
concern
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Listening means not just listening to words but
“listening” to what the client is not saying verbally
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO COMMUNICATE
No matter what we do we transmit information about
ourselves! Look around the room – what are your
classmates communicating??
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A majority (about 90%) of what we communicate is nonverbal)
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Posture, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, touching, clothing,
personal boundaries (zones), environment, etc.
Even an expressionless face at a funeral says something
 What messages are you sending at this very moment?
 Nonverbal cues often reveal feelings a person is trying to
hide
 Since feelings stem from thoughts, nonverbal clues that
reveal what people are feeling also transmit information
about what people are thinking
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Body language (kinesics) is concerned with movements, gestures, posture
and facial expressions
 Helps confirm or negate the validity of the spoken messages
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Nonverbal signals are useful in managing transitions during the interview
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Nonverbal may communicate what the interviewee cannot bring themselves
to say – example: client uncomfortable talking about an issue – what body
language would they project?
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Provides information about feelings and attitudes of which the interviewee
may have only a dim awareness or they are totally unaware (or may not
want to be aware of, i.e., anger at a partner or child).
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Nonverbal messages may modify, refine, reinforce, clarify, elaborate, and
substitute for verbal messages.
In inferring meaning from our observations:
 Best if we respond not to individual components of nonverbal
communication but to the pattern formed by the total configuration
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Chronomic communication: time as a general nonverbal
message
 How we manage time sends a message
 Cultural considerations and time – example?
Artifactual communication: Language of objects
 The channel is visual: clothes, hairstyle, make-up, jewelry,
office décor (client’s home décor) – example?
Smell
 Olfactory channel is rarely utilized as a form of
communication
 Can trigger memories, etc.- example?
Touch
 Powerful (both negative and positive), nonverbal method of
communication – example?
Proxemics: language of space and distance (what is your
comfort zone – bubble of space)
Demonstrate nonverbal: role plays
The Interview
The interview is purposeful and this
distinguishes it from friendly or casual
conversation – other distinguishers?
 This purpose and focus are always informed by
assessment – the ongoing gathering of data
and impressions that guide all aspects of the
work.
 Although there is a general purpose for the
overall work together, there may be a number of
specific goals for each session.
 The guiding purpose of the clinical interview is
to help the client.
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©2011 Brooks/ Cole Publishing |
Cengage Learning, Inc.
Beginnings
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Introductions:
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Following a friendly greeting, the interviewer usually begins by
acknowledging the names and roles of all present and reviewing
either the initial request for help or the reason for the interview.
The clinician needs to clarify the amount of time available for the
initial meeting, as well as the total number of sessions available to
the client.
Focal opening lines: “So you are interested in speaking with me about some
things that are going on with your son”
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Lend structure without foreclosing client contributions
opening remarks that lend structure to initial clinician-client interactions
and often provide a conversational framework, agenda, and tone
Non-directive opening lines: “So what brings you here today”
 Leave client greater opportunity to set agenda, pace, focus, and tone
 These involve introductions, including names and roles, the reason
for meeting, and time available
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Use client’s formal name unless invited to do otherwise; learn pronunciation of
name/ask for clarification
Three Stage Model of
Interviewing
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Stage 1: Exploration: to build a working relationship with the client and to discover what
brings client to you (what problems/issues)
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Stage II: Clarification: to facilitate the definition of the client’s problems/issues; to help
client order those problems/issues requiring further action and redefine them into
attainable goals.
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Attending behavior
Effective questioning
Reflecting content
Reflecting feeling
Confronting
Communicating feeling and immediacy
Self-disclosing
Interpreting
Stage III: Action: to assist the client in taking action
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Information giving
Structuring the interview for exploration, clarification and action
Enlisting cooperation
A Unique Relationship: How So?
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The social work interview is:
Purposeful – requires an intentional focus on the client’s needs and goals
 Theory based– provides a framework (eclectic)
 Structure – the interview and the process have a beginning, middle and end
 Contract – working agreement stating the purpose, goals, roles,
expectations, time, structure and fees
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Intimacy between strangers
Mutuality but not equal
Social worker is accountable for the effectiveness of what is
happening
Intentional focus on the client’s story, needs, goals
Goals for each session as well as for the overall work
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Roles: client and clinician
Use of self: own actions and reactions, deliberate decisions about what
to disclose
Multiculturalism: knowledge about cultures and customs of clients
Time-limited: beginning, middle, end
Confidential: limits
Expectations: client’s and worker’s
Values and ethics: NASW Code
Intentional focus on client’s story; goals for each session and for overall
work
Our worldview:
 Ecosystems
 Interrelated, interdependence of biological, psychological, sociocultural, political, economic
 Belief in the capacity to change and grow
 Reframe
 Strengths perspective
 Advocacy
 Multiple realities
The Environment
Even if you don’t have control over your own office settings, you
need to take responsibility for the space in which you work:
 as private as possible
 accessible to persons with disabilities
 furniture placement should reflect equality, respect and
comfort (how would you accomplish this?)
 Borrowed space (special challenges)
 Could be prison, school, hospital, agency, institution, home,
etc
Home Visits:
 Give worker an expanded perspective
 Challenges:
Unfamiliar environments
 Intrusions
 Clinician as guest
 Social rituals
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Video: Chapter 3
 Skills Demonstrated: Attending
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Attending and Listening
Focused attending: attend in order to listen;
listen in order to understand
 Psychological attending: put aside distractions
and worries
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 Psychological
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readiness and openness to clients
Physical attending: SOLER
 S:
sit squarely
 O: open posture
 L: Lean forward
 E: eye contact
 R: relax
Listening to Client’s Stories
Context
 Immediate context-personal circumstances
 Larger systems context
 Meaning
 How client makes sense of their situation, feelings,
behaviors and thoughts (danger of making our own
interpretation/reacting)
 Emphasis
 Theoretical models emphasize different components of the
client’s story
 Themes
 Recurring sets of ideas, beliefs or notions
 Patterns
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Behavioral or affective sequences either within the interview or across a
series.
Clinical Listening
Listening to verbal and nonverbal communication
 Appearance, body posture, gestures, facial expressions,
affect.
 Behaviors
 How feelings/thoughts etc, are expressed (Grandma)
 Cognitive style
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Paralinguistic cues: how clients say things (tone, rate of
speech, inflection, intonation and articulation)
Silence (cultural meanings).
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Ordered, positive and flexible
How can words be barriers to communication?
Metacommunications: an act of communication between two agents that
also communicates something about the communication itself, or about the
relationship between the two agents, or both. the message behind or about the
message.
Common Errors in Listening
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Formulating a response while giving peripheral attention to
incoming communication
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Listening to what you hope to hear (example?) IPV
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Listening to what you expect to hear (example?)
 Client: these things I’ve told you…
 Worker: (interrupts client says) …are strictly confidential
 Client: (continuing)…are the way I think most of the time,
and I hope you don’t misinterpret me
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Failure to listen to what you fear to hear
 What does this mean?
Listening
with too much attention to detail,
neglecting patterns
Inattentive listening resulting from
boredom/fatigue (shopping list)
Inattentive listening resulting from internal
emotional distractions or
daydreaming (breakup, vacation)
Listening without sufficient knowledge of the
purpose of the interview so that you cannot direct
your attention to what is most relevant
•Linguistic differences
If client’s native language is different from yours
Translators: complexity of three person relationships,
confidentiality, etc.
Feelings or Affect
Clinicians should note the frequency of
each feeling state and which feelings
seem to predominate.
 Does the client have limited feeling
words? Intellectualizer – I think
 Clinicians should listen to discern whether
clients can regulate their feelings or
whether they feel overwhelmed by them.
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©2011 Brooks/Cole Publishing |
Cengage Learning, Inc.
Clinical Repose
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Clinical repose is the relaxed, attentive,
reassuring steadiness of the clinician,
which helps the client to relax and feel
confident of the clinician’s reliability.
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repose is expressed by a relaxed,
open posture and gaze, along with a
calm, confident manner.
Warmth and Caring
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Unconditional positive regard is the appreciation and
affirmation of clients as people of worth.
 This is done by the clinician communicating nonjudgmental
acceptance and genuine care for the client.
People rate warmth and caring extremely high when
asked to list attributes they would like in a potential
clinician, mentor, or adviser.
 Clinicians may find it difficult to decide how to show
caring.
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They don’t want to appear too detached and
professional.
They also don’t want to be too sweet and “touchyfeely” because clients may feel put off by this.
Genuineness
According to Carl Rogers, the therapist is willing to
express and be open about any persistent feelings
that exist in the relationship.
 He goes on to state that this “means avoiding the
temptation to hide behind a mask of
professionalism.” Process the process
 Clinicians need to avoid fake smiles, counterfeit
approval, and false reassurance.
 The goal is to accompany the client in the moment of
his or her experience, not to be a mind reader
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Intentional Use of Self continued
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Attending to self is important for several
reasons:
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We need to be aware of what our
reactions may convey to clients, both
intentionally and unintentionally.
 (2) The reactions that the client’s story
evokes in us may provide important
information about responses the client may
engender in others.
 (3) Introspection increases our own selfknowledge.
Thoughts and Cognitive Style
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Clinicians should listen for:
 what
clients think about;
 the degree to which clients seem to think
about their inner lives, external events, or
their connections with others;
 the degree to which their thoughts are
positive and hopeful or negative and
pessimistic;
 and how they think and how they handle new
thoughts or conflicting ideas.
Validation occurs when we endorse and appreciate
the realities of the client’s story.
 Universalizing is a technique in which the clinician
verbally places the client in a community of people
sharing similar feelings, experiences, or opinions.
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Ex: “Many people who lose a loved one experience intense
feelings like you are describing”
 Clinicians who hold a strengths perspective recognize clients’
courage or persistence in working toward goals.
 Recognition and confirmation can build self-esteem and
initiative.
 As clinicians, we can usually validate client strengths more
effectively when we are aware of and secure in our own
strengths
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Empathy
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Empathy is the process of experiencing the world
from another’s subjective perspective while
maintaining one’s own perspective as an outside
observer.
Empathy provides the clinician with important human
experience and information on which to base hunches
that inform future clinical work.
Empathy is NOT sympathy.
Empathy is much more than just putting oneself in the
other person’s shoes.
Empathy requires a constant shifting between my
experiencing as you what you feel and my being able
to think as me about your experience.
©2011 Brooks/Cole Publishing |
Cengage Learning, Inc.
Think of a time when someone really understood you
Developing Clinical Empathy
To be empathic, we need to both broaden our knowledge of
the wide range of human experience and open our hearts.
 It is good to push yourself beyond the familiar and
expand the network of those with whom you
interact.
 You can broaden your human experiences by
volunteering in the community.
 Reading professional literature and attending conferences are
other ways to expand your level of empathy.
 Attending to these failures can be extremely important in
modeling for clients that mistakes can occur without
destroying relationships.
 Also, mutuality is increased because the client gets to educate
and correct the clinician about what was actually said or what
is happening between them
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The Importance of Worldview
Values
are mediated by personal prejudice,
xenophobia, misinformation, and stereotyping.
The characteristics of individuals and groups
obtain meaning within larger social contexts, which
include geography, historical period, and prevailing
cultural norms.
How does this inform practice?
Empathic Echo
Empathic echo is a verbal reflection of both the
content and the affect within a client’s story, to signal
that the clinician is attending closely to what the client
says and does in the moment.
Ex: “Right now I get the feeling that you are uncomfortable
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talking about your Dad. Lets talk about what is so painful for
you in relation to your Dad”
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Clinicians often distinguish between content and
affect, although the two are always interacting at
some level.
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Reflection of feeling: making statements about the
feelings that may wrap around the client’s words
Empathic Echo continued
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Clinicians usually paraphrase what the
client has said using similar words and
phrases that hopefully convey the same
meaning.
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can be risky because the clinician may
choose words that don’t convey the same
meaning as the client intended.
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Linguistic differences can also complicate
accurate reflection.
Empathic Failures
Empathic failures are clinical interactions in which
clinicians reflect the wrong content, feeling, or
meaning; miss important themes; pile on too much
sympathy; confuse one client’s story with another; or
seem disingenuous.
 Attending to these failures can be extremely important
in modeling for clients that mistakes can occur without
destroying relationships.
 Also, mutuality is increased because the client gets to
educate and correct the clinician about what was
actually said or what is happening between them
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©2011 Brooks/Cole Publishing |
Cengage Learning, Inc.
Transference/Countertransference
in the helping relationship
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Transference: the unconscious process by which early unresolved
relational dynamics or conflicts are unwittingly displaced or
transferred onto the current relationship with the worker.
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Can be both positive and negative
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Example/positive: teen client seems to view worker as a “kindly grandfather”
even though the worker is a 26-year-old woman. The young man had fished and
hunted with his grandfather, the only positive figure in his life. (Such idealizations
are thought to fuel the early stages of most human attachments and can be
helpful in sustaining the working alliance)
Unscrupulous workers
Example/negative: the client may unconsciously express or act out in the
moment, old, unhappy, scenarios with the clinician as though the worker were
actually the abandoner, the punisher, etc, who harmed the client in the past. May
lash out at worker: “you don’t really care about me,; “you will hurt me/leave me
just like _________ did”
Can be valuable in helping client see relationship patterns, attractions; process it and talk about.
Countertransference: worker’s unconscious reactions to the client
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Can occur in situations that replicate unresolved scenarios in the
worker’s past
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Example: a normally accepting worker might begin to loathe or dread a
particularly critical client. On reflection, she comes to see that, because of her
own early experience of criticism from her perfectionist father, she is taking the
client’s criticism personally and is resenting the client for it. Johnny’s example
Reflecting on Self in the
Relationship
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Why am I reacting with this particular client in a way that is unusual
for me?
What buttons might this client be pushing in me?
What buttons might I be pushing in this client?
What do critical (bossy, self-centered, demanding, etc) type people
stir up in me?
Are my reactions to the client being displaced from another life
experience?
Can I identify a pattern of reacting to certain types of people in
characteristic ways that are not purposeful or helpful to the client?
Do I think of some clients all the time and some almost never?
Am I favoring some clients over others?
Is personal reflection enough to change my reactions, or do I need
supervision or personal therapy to assist with professionalizing my
responses with clients?
Safety Challenges
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Safety challenges (avoid working alone, let someone
know where you are going, carry your cell, position
yourself near the door, look for signs of intoxication/drug
use, avoid home visits at night if possible, learn selfdefense techniques).
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OSHA (1996) announced that “more assaults occur in
health care and social service industries than in any
other” (Weinger, 2001, p.3).
According to Weinger (2001), half of all human service
workers will experience client violence at some point in
their careers.
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Know your agency policies regarding home visits, office
procedures during emergencies, etc.