Basic Counselling Skills





Attending Behaviour
Closed and Open – ended Questions
Paraphrase
Summary
Reflection




Orienting oneself physically and
psychologically
Encourages the other person to talk
Lets the client know you’re listening
Conveys empathy









SHOVELER
S: Face the other Squarely
H: Head Nods
O: Adopt an Open Posture
V: Verbal Following
E: Speech patterns & Volume
L: Lean toward the other
E: Make Eye Contact
R: Be relatively relaxed
In pairs practice telling each
other about your week for 2
minutes – how many attending
skills can you apply?






Questions that clients cannot easily answer
with ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or one or two word responses
‘What brings you here today?’
‘How would you describe your health?’
‘How did you feel when that happened?’
‘What did you do when that happened?’
‘What are your reasons for saying that?’




To
To
To
To
begin an interview
encourage client elaboration
elicit specific examples
motivate clients to communicate
In pairs 1 ask the other ‘How
would you describe your day?’
See how long you can go until
you ask a closed question
Swap positions and start again





Questions that the other can easily answer
with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or one or two work
response
‘Are you going to get the test done?’
‘Did you drink a lot of water today?’
‘Do you drink alcohol often?’
‘Do you exercise?’




To
To
To
To
obtain specific information
identify parameters of a problem or issue
narrow the topic of discussion
interrupt an overtalkative client
In pairs, 1 student ask the other
‘how was your day?’ discuss for 1
minute using closed ended
questions
Swap and repeat the exercise.

How did the Open Ended Questions feel as
opposed to the Closed Ended Questions?






Are you nervous?
How do you feel?
Are you worried this isn’t quick fix?
What do you think you might do if this is a
long term issue?
Is your stress levels high?
How would you describe your stress?
The counsellor rephrases the content of the
clients message
 Example:
Client: ‘I know it doesn’t help my depression to
sit around or stay in bed all day’
Counsellor: ‘It sounds like you know you
should avoid staying in bed or sitting around
all day to help your depression’





To convey that you are understanding
him/her
Help the client by simplifying, focussing and
crystallising what they said
May encourage clients to elaborate
Provide a check on level of accuracy of your
understanding or perceptions



When you have a hypothesis about what’s
going on with the client
When the client is in a decision making
conflict
When the client has presented a lot of
information and you feel confused.



1. Recall the message and restate it to
yourself covertly
2. Identify the content part of the message
3. Select an appropriate beginning
Ie ‘it sounds like’ ‘so you think’ ‘I hear you
saying’ ‘would I be right in hearing that’


4. Translate the key content into your own
words
5. Confirm the paraphrase with the client
1 to discuss a recent dilemma
about their day
1 to paraphrase
Swap and repeat the exercise




A verbal response to a client emotion
Example;
Client: ‘So many things are going on right
now; another hectic semester has started, my
dog is sick, my mum is too. I find myself
running around trying to take care of
everything. I’m not sure I’ve got the energy
to take care of me as well’
Counsellor: ‘You’re felling pretty
overwhelmed by all the things going on right
now’





Helps clients:
Feel understood
Express more feelings
Manage feelings
Discriminate among various feelings
1. Listen closely and observe behaviour
- watch non verbal behaviour
- verbally reflect the feelings back to the client
 2. Identify the feeling category
 3. Identify the intensity
 4. Mark the feeling and the intensity or a word
 Feed back to the client
 Add content using the form ‘you feel ______,
because______’
 Check for accuracy.









To tie together multiple elements of client
messages
To identify a common theme or pattern
To interrupt excessive rambling
To start a session
To end a session
To pace a session
To review progress
To serve as a transition when changing topics
1. Recall key content and affect messages
 2. Identify patterns or themes
 3. Use appropriate sentence stem and
verbalise the summarisation response
Ie ‘I get the sense...’ ‘the picture I’m getting’
‘overall it seems’
4. Summarise
5. Assess the effectiveness of your
summarisation

To create a summary of your
pairs day from all the
information you have gathered
in this session

Self-Disclosure falls under the notion of
genuineness in Client Centered counseling,
and can be a bit of a tricky area. Too much
self-revelation and the client may lose
respect for you; not enough and the client
may think you are not a fellow human and
cannot relate to their situation.





Some good general guidelines about self disclosure:
1. First impressions are lasting impressions. What you wear and
what your office looks like speak volumes about you. Try to find
a balance. If you are eccentric, tone it down; if you are a
minimalist, soften things with a plant and a picture.
2. Generally speaking, in the first session it is best not to reveal
personal information about yourself. You don’t want the client to
dislike you because of a non-essential disclosure.
3. Less is best. The session is about the client. She or he is not
there to hear about you and your challenges, or to discuss the
things you’d like to talk about.
4. If you do share an incident in your own life, make sure it’s one
that had a positive resolution.


is the practice of writing down pieces of
information, often in an shorthand and messy
manner. The listener needs to be discreet and
not disturb the flow of thought, speech or
body language of the speaker.
Do not allow note taking to break genuine
and consistent eye contact




Client Centred counsellors would not say
they use techniques – rather they have an
approach of being empathetic, accepting and
truly “there” for the client. Having said that
the following skills are central:
• Active and empathic listening
• Reflection of content and feelings
• Genuineness which may include appropriate
self-disclosure by counsellor