Intentional Interviewing and Counseling: Facilitating Client Development in a Multicultural Society 9th Edition Allen E Ivey Mary Bradford Ivey Carlos P Zalaquett Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Chapter Observation Skills Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Chapter Goals and Competency Objectives (slide of 2) Awareness and Knowledge ▲ Understand nonverbal behavior How you and your clients behave nonverbally? ▲ Note verbal behavior How you and your clients use language? ▲ Recognize discrepancies and conflict Much of counseling and psychotherapy is about working through conflict and coping with the inevitable stressful incongruities we all face ▲ Learn about abstract versus concrete language Where is the client on the “abstraction ladder”? ▲ Understand varying individual and cultural ways of verbal and nonverbal expression Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Chapter Goals and Competency Objectives (slide of 2) Skills and Action ▲See, hear, and feel the client’s world ▲Flex intentionally when working with diverse clients, and avoid stereotyping your observations ▲Observe your impact on the client: How does what you say change or relate to the client’s behavior? Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Introduction: Are You a Good Observer? (slide of 2) ▲Observation is the act of watching carefully and intentionally with the purpose of understanding behavior ▲Mastering this skill takes time and practice ▲Helps to get to know clients and what is conveyed by their verbal and nonverbal behavior ▲Facilitates establishment of a working relationship Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Introduction: Are You a Good Observer? (slide of 2) Observation Skills: Observe your Anticipated Client Response: own and the client’s verbal and Observations provide specific nonverbal behavior Anticipate data validating or invalidating individual and multicultural what is happening in the session differences in nonverbal and Also, they provide guidance for verbal behavior Carefully and the use of various microskills and selectively feed back some herestrategies The smoothly flowing and-now observations to the session will often demonstrate client as topics for exploration movement symmetry or complementarity Movement dyssnchrony provides a clear clue that you are not “in tune” with the client Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills: Principles for Observation A good place to start is by noticing your own way of being ▲ Take a brief inventory of your own nonverbal style You might begin by thinking back to your natural style of attending, but expand those self-observations Make a video of you talking with someone about a topic on which you agree ▲ What is your interpersonal style? What you notice and how might it affect your relationships with others? ▲ Write your observations and then compare what you find with later examination of your own videos and feedback that you obtain from others Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) ▲ Nonverbal behavior is often the first clue to what clients are feeling underneath the language they use ▲ While listening to a client’s story, we need to be constantly aware of how he or she reacts to what we say —both verbally and nonverbally ▲ Your ability to observe will help you anticipate and understand what is happening with your client Be careful to watch for individual and cultural differences Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) Facial Expressions ▲ Smiling is a good indicator of warmth and caring Important for developing relationships ▲ A client’s nonverbals give you important clues to what he or she is experiencing and may include Brow furrowing; lips tightening or loosening; flushing; smiling at inappropriate times; subtle color changes in the face as blood flow reflects emotional reactions; breathing temporarily speeding up or stopping; lips swelling; and pupils dilating or contracting Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) ▲ Each culture has a different style of nonverbal communication Smiling is a sign of warmth in most cultures, but in some situations, it may indicate discomfort Patterns of eye contact also vary by culture ▲ Be careful not to assign to your clients your own ideas about what is “standard” and appropriate nonverbal communication ▲ Study nonverbal communication patterns and their variations ▲ In a session, changes in style may be just as important as or more important than finding specific meanings in communication style Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) Body Language People who are communicating well often “mirror” each other’s body language This is known as movement synchrony Unconscious body movement synchrony has been discovered in neural correlates and connectivity among and within specific brain regions ▲ Movement complementarity refers to paired movements that may not be identical but are still harmonious ▲ Some experts deliberately “mirror” their clients ▲ Matching body language, breathing rates, and key words of the client can enhance the counselor’s understanding of how the client perceives and experiences the world Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) Body Language ▲ Particularly important are discrepancies in nonverbal behavior, or movement dyssynchrony ▲ Watch for times when clients suddenly change posture ▲ Lack of harmony in movement is common between people who disagree markedly, even between those who may not be aware they have subtle conflicts Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Nonverbal Behavior (slide of 6) Acculturation Issues in Nonverbal Behavior: Avoid Stereotyping ▲ Acculturation is the degree to which an individual has adapted to the norms or standard way of behaving in a given culture ▲ No two people will be acculturated to general standards in the same way ▲ Consider biculturality and multiculturality Many of your clients will have more than one significant community cultural experience Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) ▲ Counseling and psychotherapy theory and practice have an almost infinite array of verbal frameworks within which to examine the session ▲ Three dimensions useful for direct verbal observation in the session: Key words Concreteness versus abstractions “I” statements versus “other” statements Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) Key Words ▲ Note clients’ key words and help them explore the facts, feelings, and meanings underlying those words ▲ Key descriptive words are often the constructs by which a client organizes the world; these words may reveal underlying meanings ▲ Joining clients by using their key words facilitates your understanding and communication with them Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) Concreteness Versus Abstraction Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) Concreteness Versus Abstraction ▲ Match client’s style and join client where he or she is ▲ Help abstract clients become more concrete “Could you give me an example?” ▲ Help concrete clients become more abstract and pattern oriented Best effected by a conscious effort to listen to their sometimes lengthy stories very carefully Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) “I” Statements and “Other” Statements ▲ Clients’ ownership of and responsibility for issues will often be shown in their “I” and “other” statements ▲ May be predominately positive or negative ▲ Need to achieve a balance between internal and external responsibility for life issues Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Verbal Behavior (slide of 6) “I” and “Other” Statements ▲ Consider multicultural differences in the use of the word “I.” English is one of the few languages in which “I” is capitalized Vietnamese has no reference to “I” Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Discrepancies, Mixed Messages, and Conflict (slide of 4) Examples of Conflict Internal to the Client ▲ Discrepancies in Verbal Statements In a single sentence, a client may express two contradictory ideas Aid the client in understanding his or her ambivalence ▲ Discrepancies Between Statements and Nonverbal Behavior Discrepancies between what one says and what one does are very important Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Discrepancies, Mixed Messages, and Conflict (slide of 4) Examples of Conflicts Between the Client and the External World ▲ Discrepancies and Conflict Between People “I cannot tolerate my neighbors.” Noting interpersonal conflict is a key task of the counselor or psychotherapist ▲ Discrepancies Between a Client and a Situation In such situations, the client’s ideal world is often incongruent with reality Discrimination, heterosexism, sexism, and ableism represent situational discrepancies Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Discrepancies, Mixed Messages, and Conflict (slide of 4) Discrepancies in Goals ▲ Goal setting is an important part of the empathic relationship-story and strengths-goals-restory-action model ▲ You will often find that a client seeks incompatible goals Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Discrepancies, Mixed Messages, and Conflict (slide of 4) Discrepancies Between You and the Client Be aware when your perspective conflicts with that of your client Discrepancies between: ▲ Verbal and nonverbal messages ▲ Ethnic/cultural experiences ▲ Gender/age differences ▲ Learning/personality styles and approaches Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Action: Key Points and Practice of Observation Skills ▲ Importance of Observation ▲ Nonverbal Behavior ▲ Verbal Behavior ▲ Discrepancies ▲ Multicultural Issues ▲ Mirroring ▲ Concreteness Versus Abstraction Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved .. .Chapter Observation Skills Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Chapter Goals and Competency Objectives (slide of 2) Awareness and Knowledge ▲ Understand nonverbal... behavior How you and your clients behave nonverbally? ▲ Note verbal behavior How you and your clients use language? ▲ Recognize discrepancies and conflict Much of counseling and psychotherapy... individual and cultural ways of verbal and nonverbal expression Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved Chapter Goals and Competency Objectives (slide of 2) Skills and Action ▲See,