Intentional Interviewing and
Counseling:
Facilitating Client Development in a
Multicultural Society
7th Edition
Allen E. Ivey
University of Massachusetts
Mary Bradford Ivey
Microtraining Associates
Carlos P. Zalaquett
University of South Florida
Copyright © 2009
Chapter 11
Reflection of Meaning
and Interpretation/Reframing:
Helping Clients Restory Their Lives
Then I spoke of the many opportunities of giving life a
meaning. I told my comrades . . . that human life, under
any circumstances has meaning. . . . I said that
someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours—a
friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God—and
He would not expect us to disappoint him. . . . I saw the
miserable figures of my friends limping toward me to
thank me with tears in their eyes.
Viktor Frankl
Chapter goals
▲ Introduce key influencing skills to help clients discover
alternative ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving (restory).
▲ Reflection of meaning enables clients find deeper meanings
and values and achieve a vision and sense of direction for
their lives.
▲ Interpretation/reframing provides a new way of restorying and
understanding thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which often
results in new ways of making meaning.
▲ Both skills are central in restorying, creating the New, and
developing new neural networks in the brain.
Competency objectives
▲ Understand reflection of meaning and interpretation/reframing and
their similarities and differences.
▲ Assist clients, through reflection of meaning, to explore their deeper
meanings, values, and discerning their goals or life purpose.
Important in this is the process of discerning life’s mission.
▲ Realize the power of perceptions. The way you perceive things
affect how you feel and behave.
▲ Help clients, through interpretation/reframing, find an alternative
frame of reference or way of thinking that facilitates personal
development.
▲ Understand how these skills bring about measurable change on the
Client Change Scale.
The Case of Charlis
Charlis, a workaholic 45-year-old middle manager, has
a heart attack. After several days of intensive care, she
is moved to the floor where you, as the hospital social
worker, work with the heart attack aftercare team.
Charlis is motivated; she is following physician directives
and progressing as rapidly as possible. She listens
carefully to diet and exercise suggestions and seems the
ideal patient with an excellent prognosis. However, she
wants to return to her high-pressure job and continue
moving up through the company; you observe some fear
and puzzlement about what’s happened.
The Case of Charlis
Reflection Questions
▲ What do you think is going through Charlis mind?
▲ How might you help Charlis?
▲ What thoughts occur to you?
▲ What do you see as the key issues that relate to the
meaning and purpose of her life?
INTRODUCTION: DEFINING THE SKILLS OF REFLECTING
MEANING AND INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
▲Both interpretation/reframing and reflection of
meaning:
 Seek issues and meanings below the surface of client
conversation.
 Help clients find their “center of being.”
 Restory
INTRODUCTION: DEFINING THE SKILLS OF REFLECTING
MEANING AND INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
▲ Meaning: purpose or significance of something.
 Reflection of meaning is from the client’s worldview.
▲ Interpretation: an explanation of the meaning or
significance of something.
 Interpretation is from interviewer observation and perspective.
INTRODUCTION: DEFINING THE SKILLS OF REFLECTING
MEANING AND INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
Figure illustrates the centrality of meaning.
▲ Consider the relationship of
reflection of meaning to
other skills.
▲ All four dimensions are
operating simultaneously
and constantly in any
individual or group.
▲ We are systems and any
change in one part of the
system affects the total.
INTRODUCTION: DEFINING THE SKILLS OF REFLECTING
MEANING AND INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
▲ Eliciting and reflection of meaning is both a skill and a
strategy.
 As a skill, elicit meaning
 “What does . . . mean to you, your past, or future life?”
 As strategy, you use all the microskills to bring out client stories,
past, present, and future but the focus remains on client’s
meaning and purpose in life.
Reflection of Meaning Skills
If you use reflection of meaning as defined here, you can predict how
clients respond.
Reflection of Meaning: Meanings are
close to core experiencing. Encourage
clients to explore their own meanings
and values in more depth from their own
perspective. Questions to elicit meaning
are often a vital first step. A reflection of
meaning looks very much like a
paraphrase but focuses beyond what the
client says. Often the words “meaning,
values, vision, and goals” appear in the
discussion.
Predicted Result: The client discusses
stories, issues, and concerns in more
depth with a special emphasis on deeper
meanings, values, and understandings.
Clients may be enabled to discern their
life goals and vision for the future.
Interpretation/Reframing Skills
If you use interpretation/reframing skills as defined here,
you can predict how clients respond.
Interpretation/Reframe:
Provide the client with a new
meaning or perspective, frame of
reference, or way of thinking about
issues. Interpretations/reframes may
come from your observations; they
may be based on varying theoretical
orientations to the helping field; or
they may link critical ideas together.
Predicted Result: The client may find
another perspective or meaning of a
story, issue, or problem. The new
perspective could have been
generated by a theory used by the
interviewer, from linking ideas or
information, or by simply looking at
the situation afresh.
Reflection of Meaning Skill Function
▲ Find the deeply held thoughts and feelings (meanings) underlying
life experience.
▲ Expect self search into deeper aspects of client life experience.
▲ Facilitate clients’ interpretation of their own experiences.
▲ Assist clients to explore their values and goals.
▲ Understand deeper aspects of client experience.
▲ Relate this skill to person-centered counseling.
Reflection of Meaning Predicted Result
▲ Encourage clients to explore meaning and value in
depth.
▲ Use questions to elicit meaning.
▲ Pinpoint “meaning” words—meaning, value, vision,
goals…
▲ Reflection of meaning is a paraphrase with “meaning”
words.
Reflection of Meaning Predicted Result
▲ Generally, paraphrases speak to thoughts.
▲ Reflections of feelings to feelings.
▲ Attending behavior and client observation to behaviors.
▲ Reflection of meaning to meaning.
▲ Adherents of different helping methods view different
areas of the model as most important.
Reflection of Meaning Predicted Result
▲ For practical purposes we divide the client and the
counseling interview into component parts.
▲ We must remember the interaction of all the parts of both
the client and the interview.
▲ Remember, any change in one part of the system affects
the total.
Reflection of Meaning
▲ Meaning can be the central issue and where the most
profound change can occur.
▲ Meaning-oriented therapies include psychoanalysis,
logotherapy, and person-centered therapy.
▲ Integrative approaches consider meaning as a central
aspect.
 Developmental counseling and therapy
 Multimodal therapy
▲ Other therapies, than meaning oriented, may be more
useful for some clients.
Alternative Meaning and Value
▲ Meaning is closely tied to thoughts, feelings, behaviors,
and significant life experiences.
▲ What does “this” mean to the client?
▲ How does what the client is doing reflect a value
structure?
▲ Can we find values that become the instrument of
positive change and development?
Comparing Reflection of Meaning and
Interpretation/Reframing
Reflection Questions
▲ How did reflection of meaning and interpretation worked
for Charlis as she attempted to understand underlying
issues around her heart attack?
▲ What differences did you noticed between both skills?
Comparing Reflection of Meaning and
Interpretation/Reframing
▲ Both help clients generate a new and helpful way of looking at
things.
▲ Reflection of meaning focuses on the client’s worldview, seeks to
understand what motivates the client, and provides more clarity on
values and deeper life meanings.
▲ Interpretation/reframe results from interviewer observation and
seeks new and more useful ways of thinking.
▲ Reflection of meaning gives client more control of the process.
▲ Both help clients work on the difficult questions of the meaning and
direction of her future life.
 If the client does not respond to reflective strategies, move to active
reframing or a theoretical interpretation.
Interpretation/Reframing
▲ We use them together because both focus on providing
a new way of thinking or a new frame of reference for the
client.
▲ “Reframe” is a gentler construct that comes from your
here and how observations.
▲ Interpretation relies more heavily on theoretical
orientation of interviewer.
Interpretation/Reframing
▲ Facilitates generation of new perspectives from which
the client may act.
▲ Value of interpretation depends on the client’s reaction.
▲ Integrate other skills:
 Restorying, learn to talk about problems in a new more positive
way.
 Reflection of meaning, except the interviewer is more actively
involved in reinterpretation.
 Focusing may provide multiple perspectives.
Linking
▲ Is an important part of interpretation.
▲ Two or more ideas are brought together, providing the
client with a new insight.
EXAMPLE INTERVIEW: TRAVIS EXPLORES
THE MEANING OF A RECENT DIVORCE
▲ Travis is reflecting on his recent divorce. When
relationships end, the thoughts, feelings, and underlying
meaning of the other person and the time together often
remain an unsolved mystery.
EXAMPLE INTERVIEW: TRAVIS EXPLORES
THE MEANING OF A RECENT DIVORCE
Reflection Questions
▲ How was interpretation/reframe and reflection of
meaning used to help Travis in this session?
▲ Why did Terrell introduce the concept of “relationship” in
this session?
▲ How is the concept of self-in-relation perceived by
different cultural groups?
▲ What are the similarities and differences between
reflection of meaning and paraphrase?
INSTRUCTIONAL READING 1: THE SPECIFIC SKILLS
OF ELICITING AND REFLECTION OF MEANING
▲ Eliciting Client Meaning
▲ Reflecting Client Meanings
Reflect Meaning
▲ Structure similarly to a paraphrase or reflection of
feeling.
▲ Use the exact, key words the client uses.
▲ Reflect meaning, value and how the client makes sense
of the world.
Reflection of Meaning
Predicted Result
▲ Client discusses stories, issues, and concerns in more
depth.
▲ Client emphasizes meanings, values, understandings.
▲ Clients may be able to discern their life goals and vision
for the future.
Strategies for Eliciting and Reflecting
Meaning
A general understanding of the client is the critical first
step:
▲
Use attending behavior, client observation, and the
basic listening sequence.
▲
Reveal explicit and clear behaviors, thoughts, and
feelings.
Strategies for Eliciting and Reflecting
Meaning
Use storytelling to discover the back-ground of client’s
meaning-making:
▲ Critical illness or loss force people to face deeper
meaning issues.
▲ How do meanings internalized from this experience
serve or conflict with current life experiences?
▲ Generating a new story may help resolve the issue.
Strategies for Eliciting and Reflecting
Meaning
Questions may orient toward meaning:
▲ What does this mean to you?
▲ What sense do you make of it?
▲ How have your values been implemented?
▲ What is important (unimportant) to you?
▲ Which of your values support/oppose that
action/thought/feeling?
Strategies for Eliciting and Reflecting
Meaning
Reflecting the key meaning and value words:
▲ Use the exact, key words the client uses.
▲ Reflect meaning, value and how the client makes sense
of the world.
▲ Structure similarly to a paraphrase or reflection of
feeling.
Discernment
Identifying Life Mission and Goals
▲ Discernment: to separate, to determine, to sort out, or
when the spirit is at work in a situation.
▲ Determining the origin of our interior and exterior
experiences. (Farnham, Gill, McLean, & Ward, 1991)
▲ Describes therapists’ work with clients at deeper levels
of meaning.
▲ Process where clients focus on future vision.
Discernment
Process Questions Leading to Discernment
▲ Here and now body experience and imaging
 Sit quietly and allow an image to form.
 What is your gut feeling?
 Get in touch with your body.
 What feelings & thoughts occur?
Discernment
Process Questions Leading to Discernment
▲ Concrete questions = story telling
 Tell me a story about this image.
 What are some blocks to your mission.
 What spiritual stories influence you?
 Name the feelings that relate to your goal.
Discernment
Process Questions Leading to Discernment
▲ Self reflective exploration
 What have you done right?
 What are your life goals?
 What does spirituality mean to you?
 What might you change?
Discernment
Process Questions Leading to Discernment
▲ Self-in-relationship and multicultural issues
 Family
 Friends
 Community
 Cultural groupings
 Significant other(s)
 Spiritual
Discernment
Process Questions Leading to Discernment
▲ Self-in-relationship and multicultural issues
Issue
Sample Question
Family
What do you learn from your parents?
Friends
How important are your friends to you?
Community
Culture
Significant Other
Spiritual
How have people served as role models?
How does race and gender impact you?
What does she or he mean to you?
How might you want to serve?
Multicultural Issues and Reflection of
Meaning
Meaning in a broader life context includes…
▲ Race/ethnicity
▲ Gender
▲ Sexual Orientation
▲ Physical ability
▲ Language
▲ Socioeconomic background
▲ Age
▲ Life experience(s)/trauma
FRANKL’S LOGOTHERAPY: MAKING MEANING
UNDER EXTREME STRESS
▲ Frankl, a survivor of the German concentration camp,
Auschwitz, could not change his life situation, but he was
able draw on important strengths of his Jewish tradition
to change the meaning he made of it.
▲ The Jewish tradition of serving others facilitated his
survival. Frankl counseled his entire barrack, helping
them reframe their terrors and difficulties, pointing out
that they were developing strengths for the future.
FRANKL’S LOGOTHERAPY: MAKING MEANING
UNDER EXTREME STRESS
▲ Shortly after his liberation, he wrote his famous book
Man’s Search for Meaning (1959).
▲ Frankl believed that finding positive meanings in the
depth of despair was vital to keeping him alive.
▲ During the darkest moments, he would focus his
attention on his wife and the good things they enjoyed
together; or, in the middle of extreme hunger, he would
meditate on a beautiful sunset.
INSTRUCTIONAL READING 2: THE SKILLS OF
INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
Microskill of interpretation/reframing
▲ Listen to the client story.
▲ Learn how the client makes sense of the world.
▲ Provide the client with a new perspective or frame of
reference.
▲ Interpretation/reframes may…
 Come from therapist’s observations
 Be based on theoretical orientations
 Link critical ideas together
INSTRUCTIONAL READING 2: THE SKILLS OF
INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
Predicted Result
▲ Client may find another perspective.
▲ Client may find a new meaning attached to her or his
story, issue or problem.
▲ Intervention can be evaluated (CCS).
Client Change Scale (CCS)
The Creation of the New
Denial
1
Full
Examination Decides to
Live With
But No
Partial
Incongruity
Change
Examination
2
Denies or
Discusses
fails to hear part, but not
incongruity.
all of
incongruity.
3
Discusses
incongruity
completely,
but will not
change.
4
Discusses
and is fully
aware of
decision
impact.
Decides to
Change From
Incongruity
5
Discusses
and alters
choices
when faced
with
incongruity.
Theories of Counseling and
Interpretation/Reframing
Interpretation From Different Counseling Theories
▲ Decisional Theory: helps clients find new ways of
thinking about their decisions.
▲ Person-Centered: helps clients build on their strengths
and find deeper purpose.
▲ Brief Counseling: helps clients find quick ways to reach
central goals
Theories of Counseling and
Interpretation/Reframing
Interpretation From Different Counseling Theories
▲ Cognitive-Behavioral Theory: helps clients link thinking
and behavior.
▲ Psychodynamic Theory: helps the client link ideas about
how the past influences the present.
▲ Multicultural Counseling and Therapy (MCT): helps
clients reframe their concerns in relation to their
multicultural back-ground.
SUMMARY
▲ Eliciting and reflecting meaning is a complex skill that requires you
to enter the sense-making system of the client.
▲ Full exploration of life meaning requires a self-directed, verbal client
willing to talk.
▲ The skill complex is most often associated with an abstract, formaloperational interviewing style.
▲ With clients who are more concrete, you will still find that eliciting
and reflecting meaning is useful.
 the approach to meaning taken by the cognitive-behavioral therapists is
more useful with these clients.
▲ Highly verbal or resistant clients may intellectualize and take no
action.
SUMMARY
▲ Meanings are organizing constructs that are at the core of our being.
Mastering the art of understanding meaning will take more time than
other skills but you will find that completing exercises with reflection
of meaning result in better understanding of your client.
▲ Before interpret or reframe be sure you have heard the clients’ story
or concerns, and then draw from personal experience or a
theoretical perspective to provide the client a new way of thinking
and talking about issues.
▲ Focusing and multicultural counseling and therapy is the most
certain way to bring multicultural issues into the interview.
▲ The effectiveness of an interpretation/reframe can be measured on
the Client Change Scale.
Key Points
Meaning
▲ Meaning is not observable behavior, although it could be
described as a special form of cognition that reaches the
core of our being.
 Helping clients discern the meaning and purpose of their lives
stimulates change and provides a direction of that change.
 Meaning organizes life experience and serves as a metaphor to
generate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
 A person with a sense of meaning and a vision for the future
often work through or live with difficult issues and problems.
 Reflections of meaning are generally for more verbal clients and
is found more in counseling or therapy than in general
interviewing.
Key Points
The how of meaning
▲ A well-timed reflection of meaning may help many clients
facing extreme difficulty.
▲ It can help clarify cultural and individual differences, as
the same words often have varying underlying meaning
for each client.
▲ As meaning is often implicit, it is helpful to ask questions
that lead clients to explore and clarify meaning.
Key Points
The how of meaning
▲ Eliciting meaning:
 “What does ‘XYZ’ mean to you?” Insert the key important words
of the client that will lead to meanings and important thoughts
underlying key words. “What sense do you make of it?” “What
values underlie your actions?” “Why is that important to you?”
“Why?” (by itself, used carefully)
Key Points
The how of meaning
▲ Reflecting meaning
 Essentially, this looks like a reflection of feeling except that the
words “meaning,” “values,” or “intentions” substitute for feeling
words. For example, “You mean . . . ,”“Could it mean that
you . . . ,” “Sounds like you value . . . ,” or
 “One of the underlying reasons/intentions of your actions
was. . . .” Then use the client’s own words to describe his or her
meaning system. You may add a paraphrase of the context and
close with a check-out.
Key Points
Interpretation/reframing
▲ The counselor helps clients obtain new perspectives,
new frames of reference, and sometimes new meanings,
all of which can facilitate clients’ changing their view and
way of thinking about their issues. This skill comes
primarily from the counselor’s observations and
occasionally from the client.
Key Points
Interpretation/reframing
▲ Theoretical interpretations
 These come from specific counseling theory such as
psychodynamic and interpersonal, family therapy, or even
Frankl’s logotherapy.
 Clients tell the story or speak about their problems and issues.
The counselor then makes sense of what they are saying from
their theoretical perspective.
Key Points
Interpretation/reframing
▲ Reframes
 These tend to come from here-and-now experience in the
interview or they might be larger reframes of major client stories.
 The reframes are based on your experience in providing the
client with another interpretation of what has happened or how
the story is viewed.
 Effective reframes can change the meaning of key narratives in
clients’ lives. The positive reframe is particularly important.
Key Points
Interpretation/reframing at the deepest level
▲ Meaning affects interpretation.
 Viktor Frankl constantly reframed his experience in the German
concentration camp, integrating here-and-now positive reframing
with meaning.
 The major reframe of such traumatic experience, of course, is “I
survived” or “You survived.” Despite the traumatic experience
(war, rape, accident), you are still here with the possibility of
changing a part of the world.
COMPETENCY PRACTICE EXERCISE AND
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Chapter 11
Individual Practice
Group practice
Self-assessment
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Identification of Skills
IIC
Read the following client statement. Which of the following
counselor responses are paraphrases (P), reflections of
feeling (RF), reflections of meaning (RM), or
interpretations/reframes?
I feel very sad and lonely. I thought Jose was the one for me.
He’s gone now. After our breakup I saw a lot of people but no
one special. Jose seemed to care for me and make it easy for
me. Before that I had fun, particularly with Carlos. But it
seemed at the end to be just sex. It appears Jose was it; we
seemed so close.
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Identification of Skills
IIC
____ “You’re really hurting and feeling sad right now.”
____“Since the break-up you’ve seen a lot of people, but Jose provided the most
of what you wanted.”
____ Sounds like you searching for someone to act as the father you never had
and Jose was part of that.
____ Another way to look at it is that you unconsciously don’t really want to get
close; and when you get really close, the relationship ends.
____“Looks like the sense of peace, caring, ease, and closeness meant an awful
lot to you.”
____“You felt really close to Jose and now are sad and lonely.”
____“Peace, caring, and having someone special mean a lot to you. Jose
represented that to you. Carlos seemed to mean mainly fun, and you found no real
meaning with him. Is that close?”
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Identification of Skills
IIC
List possible single-word encouragers for the same client
statement.
You will find that the use of single-word encouragers leads
your client to talk more deeply about the unique meanings
underlying behavior and thought.
Search carefully for key words, repeat them, and then reflect
meaning.
Individual Practice
Exercise 2: : Identifying Client Issues of Meaning
IIC
To identify underlying meanings for yourself, talk with a
client, or someone posing as a client, observing his or her
key words. Use those key words as the basis of
encouragers, paraphrasing, and questioning to elicit
meaning.
This should be done with considerable sensitivity to the
client and her or his needs.
Record the results of your experience with this important
exercise.
You will want to record patterns of meaning-making.
Individual Practice.
Exercise 3: Questioning to Elicit Meanings
IIC

Assume a client comes to you and talks about an
important issue in her or his life (for instance,
divorce, death, retirement, a pregnant daughter).

Write five questions that might be useful in bringing
out the meaning of the event.
Individual Practice.
Exercise 4: Practice of Skills in Other Settings
IIC

During conversations with friends or in your own
interviews, practice eliciting meaning through a
combination of questioning and single-word encouragers,
and then reflect the meaning back.

You will often find that single-word encouragers lead
people to talk about meaningful issues.

Record your observations of the value of this practice.

What one thing stands out from your experience?
Individual Practice. Exercise 5: Discernment:
Examining One’s Purpose and Mission
IIC

Using the suggestions in this chapter, work through each
of the four sets of questions.
 You can do this by yourself, using a meditative approach and
journaling.
 or with a classmate.


Allow yourself time to think carefully about each area.
Add questions and topics that occur to you—make this
exercise fully personal.
What do you learn from this exercise about your own life
and wishes?
Individual Practice. Exercise 6: Individual Practice in
Interpretation/Reframing
IIC



Interpretations provide alternative frames of
reference or perspectives for events in a client’s
life.
In the following examples, provide an attending
response (question, reflection of feeling, or the
like) and then write an interpretation.
Include a check-out in your interpretation.
Individual Practice. Exercise 6: Individual Practice in
Interpretation/Reframing
IIC
Example A
I was passed over for promotion for the third time. Our
company is under fire for sex discrimination, and each
time a woman gets the job over me. I know it’s not my
fault at all, but somehow I feel inadequate.
Listening response
Interpretation/reframe from a psychodynamic frame of reference
(i.e., an interpretation that relates present behavior to
something from the past)
Interpretation/reframe from a gender frame of reference
Interpretation/reframe from your own frame of reference in ways
that are appropriate for varying clients
Individual Practice. Exercise 6: Individual Practice in
Interpretation/Reframing
IIC
Example B
“I’m thinking of trying some pot. Yeah, I’m only 13, but I’ve been
around a lot. My parents really object to it. I can’t see why they
do. My friends are all into it and seem to be doing fine.”
Listening response
Reframe from a conservative frame of reference (one that opposes
the use of drugs)
Reframe from an occasional user’s frame of reference
Interpretation from your own frame of reference on this issue_
Group Practice -- Exercise 7: Systematic Group Practice
in Eliciting and Reflecting Meaning
IIC
Reflection of Meaning



Separate into groups of four.
Select a group leader.
Assign roles for the first practice session.
 Interviewer
 Client
 Observer 1
 Observer 2
Group Practice -- Exercise 7: Systematic Group Practice
in Eliciting and Reflecting Meaning
IIC
Reflection of Meaning

Select and plan a topic.
 My thoughts about spirituality…
 The center of my life is….
 The most important event of my life…
 My thoughts about moving to…

Conduct a 5-minutes practice session with focus
on reflection of meaning
Group Practice -- Exercise 7: Systematic Group Practice
in Eliciting and Reflecting Meaning
IIC
Sample microskills for eliciting meaning:





Open question – “Could you tell me more?”
Encourager/Paraphrase – focus on key words.
Reflect Feeling – be in touch with client emotions.
Questions – specifically related to meaning.
Reflect Meaning of the event back to the client.
Group Practice -- Exercise 7: Systematic Group Practice
in Eliciting and Reflecting Meaning
IIC
Reflection of Meaning

Review the Session
 Observers use Reflection of Meaning Feedback Form.
Observer 1 pinpoint client statements.
 Observer 2 pinpoint interviewer statements.
 Client uses Client Feedback Form.

Rotate roles and repeat.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
FORM
IIC
(from Ch. 1)
In practice sessions, it
is very helpful to get
immediate feedback.
As you practice the
microskills, use the
Client Feedback Form.
FORM
IIC
Reflecting Meaning Feedback Form (in this Ch.)
In practice sessions, it is
very helpful to get immediate
feedback. As you practice
the microskills, we
encourage you to use the
feedback forms provided.
We provide feedback forms
for each specific skill.
Group Practice.
Exercise 8: Interpretation/Reframing Practice
IIC
Interpretation/Reframing
Follow Steps 1 - 3 as outlined in previous exercise.
 Separate into groups of four.
 Select a group leader.
 Assign roles for the first practice session.
 Interviewer
 Client
 Observer 1
 Observer 2
Group Practice.
Exercise 8: Interpretation/Reframing Practice
IIC
Interpretation/Reframing

Select and plan a topic.
 Ask client to describe something that is frustrating at the
moment.
 E.g., “having to move to a different residence hall," "having
roommates with religious beliefs different than yours," "trying to
adopt healthier eating habits," "taking a challenging course," and
"finding that you tend to procrastinate."
 Goals: listen to client’s story, learn how he or her thinks
about frustrating issue, provide alternative interpretation, and
link critical ideas together.

Conduct a 5-minute practice session using the skill.
Group Practice.
Exercise 8: Interpretation/Reframing Practice
IIC
Interpretation/Reframing

Review the Session
 Observers use the Interpretation/Reframing Feedback Form.
Observer 1 pinpoint client statements.
 Observer 2 pinpoint interviewer statements.
 Client uses Client Feedback Form.

Rotate roles and repeat.
 Remember to share time equally
FORM
IIC
Interpretation/Reframing Feedback Form (in this Ch.)
In practice sessions, it is
very helpful to get immediate
feedback. As you practice
the microskills, we
encourage you to use the
feedback forms provided.
We provide feedback forms
for each specific skill.
Group Practice.
Exercise 9: Discernment Practice
IIC

Take another person through the discernment procedure,
working carefully with each step.

Share the list of questions and ideas with your client. Ask
her or him to suggest additional questions and issues that
may be missing in this list. Have the client define which
questions he or she may wish to discuss. Use all your
listening skills as you help the client find personal direction
and meaning.

What do you and the client learned?
PORTFOLIO OF COMPETENCE
What Is Your Level of Mastery of this Skill?
IIC
 Active listening is one of the core competencies of
intentional interviewing and counseling.
 Use the following as a checklist to evaluate your present
level of mastery.
 Check those dimensions that you currently are able to
do. Those that remain unchecked can serve as future
goals.
PORTFOLIO OF COMPETENCE
IIC
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Meaning could be described as at the heart of interviewing,
counseling, and psychotherapy. Ultimately, many believe that
our behavior, thoughts, and feelings are organized by
meaning systems—our values, our important attitudes, and
our beliefs.
A key question we all face is "What sense does one make of
life?" All else can be brought back to that central question.
PORTFOLIO OF COMPETENCE
IIC
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Moving more specifically, one of your clients has an important
life experience. Asking them, "What sense do you make of
that?" or "What does that really mean to you?" can transform
an interview into depth exploration and clarify what occurred.
 What are your thoughts about meaning and


interpretation/reframe?
Can you help your clients explore meaning?
How comfortable are you providing an interpretation or
reframing one of your clients’ issues?
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Go to Chapter 11 for a full description of these levels
 Level 1: Identification and classification.
 Level 2: Basic competence.
 Level 3: Intentional competence.
 Level 4: Psychoeducational teaching competence.
SELF-ASSESSMENT Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Level 1. Identification and Classification
Identify and classify the skills.
Identify and write questions that elicit meaning
from clients.
Note and record key client words indicative of
meaning.
SELF-ASSESSMENT Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Level 2. Basic Competence
Elicit and reflect meaning in a role-play interview.
Examine yourself and discern more fully your life
direction.
Use dereflection and attitude change in a role-play
interview.
Use interpretation/reframing in the interview.
SELF-ASSESSMENT Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Level 3. Intentional Competence
Use questions and encouragers to bring out meaning issues.
When you reflect meaning, use the client’s main words and
constructs rather than your own.
Reflect meaning in such a fashion that the client starts
exploring meaning and value issues in more depth.
In the interview, switch the focus as necessary in the
conversation from meaning to feeling
(via reflection of feeling or questions oriented toward feeling)
or to content (via paraphrase or questions oriented toward
content).
Help others discern their purpose and mission in life.
SELF-ASSESSMENT Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Level 3. Intentional Competence (cont.)
When a person is hyperreflecting on the negative meaning of
an event or person, find something positive in that person or
event and enable the client to dereflect by focusing on the
positive.
Provide clients with appropriate new ways to think about their
issues, helping them generate new perspectives on their
behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
Provide a new perspective via interpretation/reframing, using
your own knowledge fromthe interview, helping your clients
use these ideas to enlarge their thinking on their issues.
Use various theoretical perspectives to organize your
reframing.
SELF-ASSESSMENT Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Reflecting
Meaning and Interpretation/Reframing Competencies
IIC
Level 4. Psychoeducational Teaching Competence
Teach clients how to examine their own meaning
systems.
Facilitate others’ understanding and use of discernment
questioning strategies.
Teach reflection of meaning to others.
Teach clients how to interpret their own experience from
new frames of reference and to think about their
experiences from multiple perspectives.
Teach interpretation/reframing to others.
DETERMINING YOUR OWN
STYLE AND THEORY:
CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION ON REFLECTING
MEANING AND INTERPRETATION/REFRAMING
CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION
ON INTEGRATING LISTENING SKILLS
Meaning is a central issue in interviewing, counseling,
and psychotherapy. Interpretation is an alternative that
achieves similar outcomes but with more interviewer
involvement.
 What single idea stood out for you among all those presented in
this chapter, in class, or through informal learning?
 What are your thoughts on multicultural issues and the use of
this skill?
 What other points in this chapter struck you as important?
 How might you use ideas in this chapter to begin the process of
establishing your own style and theory?
 Are you able to fine new meanings and reinterpret/reframe your
own life experience?
 What have you learned about discernment and its relation to
your own life?
Write your ideas in your journal.