Effective Communication Skills for Interviews: Listening & Facilitating Change - Essay Sample

Introduction

During an interview session, the interviewer or counselor must ensure that the client is comfortable facilitating effective communication. It gets achieved through verbal and non-verbal behaviors, which are communication skills required to enable change (Sommers-Flanagan, & Sommers-Flanagan, 2016). Some of its immediate actions include active listening, which translates to utilizing different skills that show the counselor is willing to listen and help the client feel heard and understood. Through active listening, the counselor can use verbal and non-verbal acts that engage in what the speaker is saying. The counselor can use minimal verbal encouragement, which are small signals of words informing the narrator they understand and relate to their problems. The interviewer can apply open body language, which helps the speaker feel comfortable and safe while engaging with the counselor (Sommers-Flanagan, & Sommers-Flanagan, 2016). One can also repeat back some of the speaker's words and phrases, an aspect that prompts them to share more. The interviewer could also mirror the speaker by adopting elements of their body language or voice tone, a feature that helps develop rapport and make clients feel comfortable (Sommers-Flanagan, & Sommers-Flanagan, 2016). This essay will assess the clinical interview's role in setting the assessment and treatment processes, building rapport, describing the role of case conceptualization in diagnosis and treatment, and identifying the necessary skills needed in psychotherapy.

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Describing the Setting for Assessment and Treatment

Counselors must establish a suitable environment for their counseling activities at home or in a healthcare facility (Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014). Notably, most people perceive a healthcare facility’s surroundings as strange; therefore, the counselor should strive to make it more comfortable and appealing. Even in the case of the counselor visiting a home, one can use a separate room and ask others to wait outside for a certain period. The counseling environment extends past the physical environment. It also covers how the counselor greets people, how they talk to their clients and different non-verbal communication aspects such as eye contact and body language. Therefore, how a counselor treats people constitutes creating the right counseling environment and demonstrating empathy and respect (Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014). Identifying the correct counseling setting is critical as it sets the necessary foundation for forming an alliance and building trust with the client.

Building Rapport during the Clinical Interview

For a counselor to work and effectively bond with a client, they must build a rapport irrespective of the model getting used in counseling (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014). Building rapport can get expounded as creating a sense of connection between individuals. Some of the approaches a counselor can use include being well prepared for a session (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014). It gets characterized by being calm, ready, and designed to be there for the client and putting their issues and problems aside (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014). The counselor can also create a safe and trusting environment, which gets achieved through an appealing setting by offering a comfortable seating arrangement such as providing tea and ensuring no intrusions. Rapport gets created by providing empathy by trying to understand how the client feels (Page & Stritzke, 2015). The counselor should also try to be honest (Page & Stritzke, 2015). It does not entail being brutally honest in a rude manner but gently through the right timing (Page & Stritzke, 2015).

Identifying the Skills Necessary for a Successful Interview

For a successful counseling interview, the counselor needs to have a specific set of skills. Besides possessing excellent listening skills, a counselor must be non-judgmental, which gets attained by avoiding sharing biased opinions until they have ascertained facts. The non-judgmental approach must be accompanied by empathetic listening to demonstrate a high degree of emotional intelligence. Offering undivided attention is also a necessary skill that fosters success in therapy. The counselor should maintain eye contact showing the speaker that they are actively listening. Eye contact gets characterized as an imperative aspect of positive feedback, which is critical in therapy. The counselor must also effectively utilize silence. It is not always that individuals learn from asking questions. Instead, an empathetic listener's silence is a valuable tool for attaining a successful therapy (Guide, 2014).

The Role of Case Conceptualization in Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

Case conceptualization of case formulation is a clinician's or counselor's collective understanding of the client's problem. It is understood via a specific theoretical orientation defined by the client's psychology and social context and supported by studies and practices linking a set of co-occurrence symptoms to analysis and, finally, a management plan (John & Segal, 2014). Case conceptualization plays a critical role in offering psychologists a framework to condense and synthesize multiple information into a well-established narrative. It helps the psychologist identify the underlying causes of a client's problem and the forces contributing to their internal and external issues. It later helps the counselor establish a treatment plan suited for the particular client. As such, the role of case conceptualization help the counselor understand their patient and their prevalent problem, inform treatment techniques and offer a basis to assess the patient’s progress (John & Segal, 2014).

Conclusion

The counselor plays various critical roles in ensuring the success of a counseling session. Some of the counselor’s efforts focus on providing that the counseling environment is favorable and suits clients. It gets achieved by utilizing verbal and non-verbal skills, characterized by active listening and offering feedback. Besides, counselors should build good rapport, an aspect that creates a sense of connection with their client. A good counselor is non-judgmental, an active listener maintains eye contact, and offers appropriate feedback to their client. Through utilizing case conceptualization, counselors can understand their patients and their underlying issues. It aids in the formulation of treatment processes and helps assess the patient’s progress.

References

Guide, A. (2014) Counselling for Maternal and Newborn Health. https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/adaptation_guide_counselling_handbook.pdf

John, S., & Segal, D. L. (2014). Case conceptualization. The encyclopedia of clinical psychology, 1-4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp106

Page, A. C., & Stritzke, W. G. (2015). Clinical psychology for trainees. Cambridge University Press.

Pietkiewicz, I., & Smith, J. A. (2014). A practical guide to using interpretative phenomenological analysis in qualitative research psychology. Psychological journal, 20(1), 7-14. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mylene_Lecoq-Bamboche2/post/What_are_the_specific_steps_to_use_in_interpretive_phenomenological_analysis/attachment/5a13457c4cde26083814dea6/AS:562879809634305@1511212412637/download/2014+Pietkiewicz+%26+Smith+-+A+practical+guide+to+using+IPA.pdf

Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2016). Clinical interviewing (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.