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 10
Focusing the Interview
Exploring the Story from
Multiple Perspectives
One very important aspect of motivation is the
willingness to stop and to look at things that no one
else has bothered to look at. This simple process of
focusing on things that are normally taken for granted
is a powerful source of creativity...”
Edward de Bono
Chapter goals
▲ Focusing is a skill that enables multiple telling of the
story and will help you and clients think of creative new
possibilities for restorying.
▲ Client issues are often complex, and the systematic
framework of focusing can help in reconstructing
problems, concerns, issues, and challenges.
▲ Being-in-relation: We all live in a system of
relationships. Focusing solely on the individual is
incomplete.
Competency objectives
▲ Increase client cognitive and emotional complexity. Too
often issues are considered from only one frame of
reference.
▲ Better understand the viewpoints of others with an
accompanying increase in empathic understanding and
cultural intentionality.
▲ Incorporate family and cultural issues, particularly
through family and community genograms.
▲ Be aware of the role of advocacy and social change as
part of the focus of your interviewing practice.
The Case of Vanessa
Vanessa walks swiftly into the office and starts talking
even before she sits down: I’m really glad to see you. I
need help. My sister and I just had an argument. She
won’t come home for the holidays and help me with
Mom’s illness. My last set of exams was a mess and I
can’t study. I just broke up with the guy I was going with
three years. And, now I’m not even sure where I’m going
to live next term. And my car wouldn’t start this morning .
. . (She continues with her list of issues and begins
repeating stories almost randomly, but always with
energy and considerable emotion.)
The Case of Vanessa
Reflection Questions
▲ Vanessa is clearly upset with the many stressors she is
facing. How would you feel if you were Vanessa’s
counselor?
▲ The client seems to jump from topic to topic. How would
this affect the way you work with her?
▲ She seems to be eager to be helped, how would you
assist her?
INTRODUCTION TO FOCUSING
▲ Vanessa has many stressors acting on her, which could
tear her apart emotionally.
▲ She is in a high state of incongruence.
▲ Focusing will help identify the areas of conflict and
discrepancy.
▲ Supportive confrontations will help her clarify her
situation and move to problem solution.
Focusing Skill
If you use focusing skills as defined below, you can predict how clients respond
Focusing: Use selective attention Predicted result: Clients will focus
and focus the interview on the
their conversation or story on
client, problem/concern,
the dimensions selected by the
significant others
interviewer. As the interviewer
(partner/spouse, family,
brings in new foci, the story is
friends), a mutual “we” focus,
elaborated from multiple
the interviewer, or the cultural/
perspectives.
environmental/ context. You
may also focus on what is
going on in the here and now
of the interview.
INTRODUCTION TO FOCUSING
FOCUSING SKILL FUNCTION
▲ Reframe and reconstruct problems, concerns, issues,
and challenges.
▲ Discover new narratives and new ways to think about an
issue.
▲ Enlarge client story telling.
▲ Increase client cognitive and emotional complexity.
▲ Better understand the viewpoints of others.
▲ More completely involve family and cultural issues.
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
▲ Therapy is for the individual client.
▲ Focus begins with the client.
▲ Focus on the client’s problem or concern.
▲ Focus on the client as being-in-relation.
▲ Clients focus on what the interviewer selects as a topic.
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
1. Individual Perspective
▲ Begin with the individual client.
▲ Personal pronouns and the client name place focus on
the client.
▲ “What are these things doing to you, Vanessa?”
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
2. Main Theme or Problem Focus
▲ Listen to clients concerns issues.
▲ Draw out client’s story.
▲ Dual focus of client and their story may appear
frequently.
▲ “Which issue would you like to focus on first?”
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
3. Other Focus
▲ The session is for the client.
▲ Clients tell about friends, family, supervisors, etc.
▲ May be important to focus on significant others.
▲ “What’s going on with your sister?”
▲ Beware of sessions where all the talk is about absent
people.
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
4. Family Focus
▲ Help clients see themselves in relation to their present and past
families.
▲ Be flexible in your definition of family.
 Nuclear
 Extended
 Single-parent
 Close living or friendship group
▲ “Sounds like your mother is the most important issue. Have I heard
correctly?
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
5. Mutuality Focus
▲ How the client reacts to the interviewer can indicate how
the client develops in relation to other people.
▲ Puts client and interviewer on an equal level.
▲ Can be quite powerful.
▲ Use infrequently.
▲ “Right now I can almost feel your hurt. We can work
through your issues together.”
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
6. Interviewer Focus
▲ Interviewer may provide feedback, opinions, or advice
from her or his perspective.
▲ Use only occasionally.
▲ Immediately bring focus back to the client.
▲ “It happened to me last week, and I didn’t know what to
do.”
HOW DO YOU FOCUS
7. Cultural / Environmental / Context Focus
▲ We are deeply affected by our family and how we grew
up in our community(ies) of origin.
▲ Help clients see themselves in relation to their present
and past families.
▲ Focus can be expanded to include many things.
 E.g., Gender, race / ethnicity, sexual orientation, spirituality /
religion, socioeconomic status, multiple contextual issues
▲ “What are some strengths you gain from your spiritual
orientation?”
EXAMPLE INTERVIEW: IT’S ALL MY FAULT—HELPING
THE CLIENT UNDERSTAND SELF-IN-RELATION
Reflection Questions
▲
In which way did Samantha helped Janet?
▲
Explain the role of focusing in this session?
▲
How was Janet’s genogram used in this session?
▲
What do we mean when we say that Janet reached
level 3 in the CCS?
▲
How would you help Janet reach CCS level 5 over
time?
Self-in-Relation vs. Autonomy
▲ Family and community experiences are integral to who
we become.
▲ Contemporary theorists challenge concept of totally
autonomous self with new terminology.
 Self-in-relation
 Being-in-relation
 Person-in-community
▲ Genograms may help clients find new perspectives on
themselves-in-relation.
INSTRUCTIONAL READING: MULTIPLE CONTEXTUAL
PERSPECTIVES ON CLIENT CONCERNS
▲
Each person we interview or counsel is unique.
▲
The person’s name and the word you are central to
every interview.
▲
The use of a genogram helps us discover client
uniqueness and understand his or her broader context
(friends, family, community).
Community Genogram
▲ Free-form activity where the client uses their own style to
present community.
▲ Helps the client generate a sense of connection and how
we all develop in a community/cultural context.
▲ Helps the therapist more completely understand the
client’s cultural background.
▲ Allows searching for positives within the community
context.
The Community Genogram
Janet’s Example
Community Genogram
▲ Reminds client that we all exist in a web of interpersonal
relationships.
▲ Helps the client see the nature and impact of their family.
▲ Family can be viewed and discussed from many different
view points.
▲ Reminds the client that we are not alone.
▲ Consider family genograms as strength inventories and
diagnostic instruments.
Building your community genogram
1. List important cultural / environmental / contextual issues.
Include ethnic identity, religion, economic, and social
class considerations; significant life events such as
trauma or environmental issues.
2. Find your own way to represent these influencers in your
life via your own visual representation system. Make it
your own approach—be creative
Building your community genogram
2. Select the community in which you were primarily raised.
3. Choose significant symbols to represent key items in
relation.

Yourself/Client

Family(ies)

Influential Community Groups

Items from RESPECTFUL Model
Building your community genogram
4. Use the basic listening sequence to draw out
information, thoughts, and feelings. The genogram
provides considerable insight into one’s personal life
issues.
Family in the community genogram
1.
List the names of family members for at least 3
generations (4 preferred). Include ages and dates of
birth and death; occupations, significant illnesses and
causes of death; and issues with alcoholism or drugs.
2.
But, also only one or two people will be sufficient.
Family emphasis will vary.
Building your family genogram
3. Basic symbols for the genogram:
Close
Enmeshed
MALE
deceased
Estranged
Distant
Conflictual
Separated
living
FEMALE
living
deceased
Drawing The Community Genogram
1. Select the community where the client was primarily
raised, but any other community, past or present, may
be used. Consider a large piece of paper as
representing the broad culture or community.
Drawing The Community Genogram
2. Use a star, circle or other significant symbol to represent
yourself or your client. Place the symbol in that
community at the most appropriate place.
Drawing The Community Genogram
3. Use appropriate symbols to represent the family
members and place them on the paper in relationship
to the first symbol. Family can include nuclear,
extended, or both.
Drawing The Community Genogram
4. Place other important and influential groups on the
community genogram:

School

Family

Neighborhood Peer groups

Work groups

Spiritual groups

Other special groups
Drawing The Community Genogram
5. Connect the groups to the focus individual. Draw
heavier lines to indicate most influential groups.
Drawing The Community Genogram
Janet’s Example
Community Positive Asset Search
Focus on one single community, group or family.
▲
Start with positive stories.
▲
Maintain a solid image of positives before you begin
with negative stories.
Community Positive Asset Search
Develop a sensorimotor visual, auditory, or kinesthetic
image representing a positive.
▲
Note the positive feelings that occur with the image.
▲
Full experience of these feelings may result in rapid
breathing or increased heart rate.
▲
These body experiences represent positive strengths
to call on during difficult issues.
Community Positive Asset Search
Develop at least two more positives.
▲
Choose images from different groups within the
community; one family, one spiritual, and one cultural.
▲
Hold to the search for positives before you begin with
negatives.
Community Positive Asset Search
Summarize the positive images in client’s words and reflect
on them.
▲
Encourage the clients to summarize their learning,
thoughts, and feelings in their own words.
▲
Record the responses as the client thinks back.
▲
Draw on these responses in many sessions or in the
daily life of the client.
How to use the community genogram
▲
Post the genogram on the wall during sessions.
▲
Focus on one dimension at a time.
▲
Emphasize positive stories even if the client wants to
begin from a negative perspective.
The Family Genogram
▲
The community genogram provides a way to see the
client in social and cultural context.
▲
The family genogram brings additional information
about all-important family history.
▲
We use both strategies with clients and hang the
genograms on the wall during the session, to indicate
to client they are not alone.
Example Family Genogram
Using Focusing to Examine Your Own
Beliefs
As an interviewer, counselor, or psychotherapist, you will encounter
controversial cases and work with clients who have made different
decisions than perhaps you would. There are deeply felt beliefs and
emotions around abortion.
▲ What is your personal position around this challenging issue?
 take time to write your response.
▲ Review the multiple dimensions of focus.
 What does your family, friends, close relationships think about abortion?
 What does your community and church say and think?
 How does your understanding of state laws and the media affect your thinking?
▲ From a contextual point of view, what has influenced your thinking on this
issue; record what you discover.
Using Focusing to Examine Your
Own Beliefs
▲ It is vital that you understand the situations, thoughts, and feelings of
those who take varying positions around abortion or any other
controversial issue, whether you agree with them or not. Can you
identify some of the thoughts and feelings of those who have a
different position from your own?
 Counseling is not teaching clients how to live or what to believe. It is helping
clients make their own decisions.
 Regardless of your personal position, you may find yourself using the interview to
further that position. Most would agree that counselors should avoid bias in
counseling.
▲ The art and mastery of effective counseling merges awareness of
and respect for beliefs with unbiased probing in the interest of client
self-discovery, autonomy, and growth.
Applying Focusing with a Challenging
Issue
Focus Dimensions
▲ Focus on Client
▲ Focus on main theme or problem
▲ Focus on Others
▲ Focus on Family
▲ Mutuality Focus
▲ Interviewer Focus
▲ Cultural/Environmental/Contextual Focus
Applying Focusing with a Challenging
Issue
Identify the specific focus of the following:
▲ What would be your reaction when Teresa tell you that she just had
an abortion?
▲ How might you focus on the family response to her abortion? How
would you search for others in the family who might be helpful or
supportive?
▲ How could you use the mutuality focus to support Teresa?
▲ How would you respond if Teresa asks you what do you think about
what I did? Or, what should I do?
▲ What would you say to bring in broader cultural / environmental /
contextual issues into the session?
ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
What is the interviewer’s role in advocacy and social
justice?
▲ Your session efforts may be insufficient to help clients
move on with their lives.
▲ Social contexts may leave clients in a situation they are
powerless to resolve.
▲ Therapists with a social justice orientation, take action
for their clients.
ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Reflection Questions
▲ What would you do if…
 As an elementary school counselor, you counsel a child who is
being bullied on the playground.
 You are a high school counselor and work with a 10th grader
who is teased and harassed about being gay while the
classroom teacher quietly watches and says nothing.
 As a personnel officer, you discover systematic bias against
promotion for women and minorities.
ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Reflection Questions
▲ What would you do if…
 Working in a community agency, a client speaks of abuse in the
home and fears leaving because she sees no future financial
support.
 You are working with an African American client who has
dangerous hypertension and reports being discriminated by his
or her coworkers at the office.
 The client has left home in fear and cannot go home.
SUMMARY:
BEING IN RELATION
▲ Focusing helps the client see issues and concerns in a
broader setting.
▲ “I” focus remains central but being-in-relation is added.
▲ We can help clients expand their horizons.
▲ Connection and interdependence are as important as
are independence and autonomy.
SUMMARY:
BEING IN RELATION
▲ Family and community genograms remind us of the selfin-relation and the need to take multiple perspectives on
any issue.
▲ The imaging of stories about community brings cultural
strengths which are important resources.
▲ Whether you generate a genograms with client or not, it
is important to be aware that for any client issue, there
may be multiple explanations and multiple new stories.
Key Points
Draw out stories with multiple focusing
▲ Client stories and issues have many dimensions. It is
tempting to accept problems as presented and to
oversimplify the complexity of life.
▲ Focusing helps interviewer and client to develop an
awareness of the many factors related to an issue as
well as to organize thinking.
▲ Focusing can help a confused client zero in on important
dimensions. Thus, focusing can be used to either open
or tighten discussion.
Key Points
Seven focus dimensions
▲ There are seven types of focuses. The one you select
determines what the client is likely to talk about next,
but each offers considerable room for further
examination of client issues:
1.
Focus on client
2.
Focus on the main theme or problem
3.
Focus on others
4.
Focus on family
5.
Focus on mutual issues or group
6.
Focus on interviewer
7.
Focus on cultural/environmental/contextual issues
Key Points
Focusing and other skills
▲ Focusing can be consciously added to the basic
microskills of attending, questioning, paraphrasing, and
so on. Careful observation of clients will lead to the most
appropriate focus. In assessment and problem definition
it is often helpful to consciously and deliberately assist
the client to explore issues by focusing on all
dimensions, one at a time.
Key Points
Advocacy and social action
▲ Advocacy and social action may be necessary when you
discover that the client’s issues cannot be resolved
through the interview alone. Counseling could be
described as a social justice profession.
▲ This is a major move from traditional counseling where
the helper is required to neutral and help the client deal
with the situation as “it is.”
▲ Advocacy means moving appropriately out of the office
into the community.
Key Points
Multicultural issues
▲ Focusing will be useful with all clients.
▲ With most clients the goal is often to help them focus on
themselves (client focus), but with many other people,
particularly those of a Southern European or African
American background, the family and community
focuses may at times be more appropriate.
▲ The goal of much North American counseling and
therapy is individual self-actualization whereas among
other cultures it may be the development of harmony
with others—self-in-relation.
Key Points
Multicultural issues
▲ Deliberate focusing is especially helpful in problem
definition and assessment, where the full complexity of
the problem is brought to light.
▲ Moving from focus to focus can help increase your
clients’ cognitive complexity and their awareness of the
many interconnecting issues in making important
decisions.
▲ With some clients who may be scattered in their thinking,
a single focus may be wise.
Key Points
The importance of the individualistic I-focus
▲ Recall that counseling is for the client.
▲ Though expanding awareness of context and self-inrelation and understanding alternative stories of a
situation are obviously useful, ultimately the unique client
before you will be making decisions and acting.
▲ The bottom line is to assist that client in writing her or his
own new story and plan of action.
COMPETENCY PRACTICE EXERCISE AND
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Chapter 10
Individual Practice
Group practice
Self-assessment
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Writing Alternative Focus Statements
IIC
For the following vignettes write the client’s main issue as you see it
A 35-year-old client comes to you to talk about an impending
divorce hearing. He says the following:
I’m really lost right now. I can’t get along with Elle, and I miss
the kids terribly. My lawyer is demanding an arm and a leg for
his fee, and I don’t feel I can trust him. I resent what has
happened over the years, and my work with a men’s group at
the church has helped, but only a bit. How can I get through
the next 2 weeks?
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Writing Alternative Focus Statements
IIC
For the following vignettes write the client’s main issue as you see it
Main issue as presented:
•Client focus
•Problem/main theme focus
•Others focus
•Family focus
•Mutual, group, “we” focus
•Interviewer focus
•Cultural/environmental/contextual focus
Individual Practice
Exercise 1: Writing Alternative Focus Statements
IIC
Write several alternative focus statements
•Reflection of feeling focusing on the client
•Open question focusing on the problem/main theme
•Closed question focusing on others
•Open question focusing on the family
•Reassurance statement focusing on “we
•Self-disclosure statement focusing on yourself, the interviewer
•Paraphrase focusing on a cultural/environmental/contextual issue
•An imaginary confrontative summary (assuming a longer interview)
in which you demonstrate a mixed focus, pointing out a major client
discrepancy
Individual Practice
Exercise 2: Developing a Family Genogram
IIC
Use the information and illustrations from the chapter to
develop a family genogram with a volunteer client or
classmate.
After you have created the genogram, ask the client the
following questions and note the impact of each.
Change the wording and the sequence to fit the needs and
interests of the volunteer.
Individual Practice
Exercise 2: Developing a Family Genogram
IIC
What does this genogram mean to you? (individual focus)
As you view your family genogram, what main theme,
problem, or set of issues stands out? (main theme, problem
focus)
Who are some significant others, such as friends,
neighbors, teachers, or even enemies who may have
affected your own development and your family’s? (others
focus)
How would other members of your family interpret this
genogram? (family, others focus)
Individual Practice
Exercise 2: Developing a Family Genogram
IIC
What impact do your ethnicity, race, religion, and other
cultural/environmental/contextual factors have on your own
development and your family’s? (C/E/C focus)
What I have learned as an interviewer working with you on
this genogram is (state your own observations).
How do you react to my observations? (interviewer focus)
What did you learn from this exercise.
What questions did you find most helpful?
Individual Practice.
Exercise 3: Developing a Community Genogram
IIC




Use the step-by-step instructions for developing a
community genogram presented in this chapter.
Use your own personal experience in your
community of origin.
As an alternative, work through the process with a
class member and each of you practice drawing
out the data.
Present the completed genogram and briefly
summarize what you learned.
Group Practice.
Exercise 4: Practice Focusing the Interview in a Group
IIC



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 4: Practice Focusing the Interview in a Group
IIC

Select and plan a topic.
 Establish clear goals
 Interviewer to cover all types of focus
 Aid client in seeing broader perspective

Conduct a practice session with focus on:
 Use all types of focus
Group Practice.
Exercise 4: Practice Focusing the Interview in a Group
IIC

Review the session.
 Observers use Focusing Feedback Form. (next slides)
 Observer 1 pinpoint client focus statements.
 Observer 2 pinpoint interviewer focus 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
Focus 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.
Those providing feedback…
Remember:
▲ Receiver is in charge.
▲ Feedback is for
receiver’s development
▲ Focus on what receiver
can change.
▲ Check out how
feedback was received.
Your feedback should be:
▲ Concrete
▲ Specific
▲ Lean
▲ Precise
▲ Non-Judgmental
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
The history of counseling and therapy has provided the field
with a primary “I” focus in which the client is considered and
treated within a totally individualistic framework. The microskill
of focusing is key to the future of interviewing, counseling,
and psychotherapy as it broadens the way both interviewers
and clients think about the world. This does not deny the
importance of the “I” focus. Rather, the multiple narratives
made possible by the use of microskills actually strengthen
the individual, for we all live as selves-in-relation. We are not
alone. The collective strengthens the individual.
PORTFOLIO OF COMPETENCE
IIC
SELF-ASSESSMENT
At the same time, the previous paragraph represents a critical
theoretical point. Some might disagree with the emphasis of
this chapter and argue that only the individual and problem
focus are appropriate.
 What are your thoughts and feelings on this important


point?
Can you help others focusing?
Can you work with all seven dimensions of focus?
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Focus Competencies
IIC
Go to Chapter 10 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 Focus Competencies
IIC
Level 1. Identification and Classification
Identify focus statements of the interviewer.
Note the impact of focus statements in terms of client
conversational flow.
Write alternative focus responses to a single client
statement.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Focus Competencies
IIC
Level 2. Basic Competence
Demonstrate use of focus types and draw out multiple
stories in role-play interview.
Use focusing in daily life situations.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Focus Competencies
IIC
Level 3. Intentional Competence
Clients can tell multiple stories about their issues.
Maintain the same focus as client.
Observe when clients shift focus, and return focus back
to the original topic when beneficial.
Combine this skill with earlier skills.
Use multiple-focus strategies for complex client issues.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Exercise: Self-Evaluation of Focus Competencies
IIC
Level 4. Psychoeducational Teaching Competence
Teach focusing skills:
Teach focusing to clients and small groups.
Measure results by the achievement of students/learners.
DETERMINING YOUR OWN
STYLE AND THEORY:
CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION
ON FOCUSING
CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION
ON FOCUSING
This chapter asks you to think about the
interview in a new way.
The ideas of self-in-relation, person-in-relation,
and the family and community genograms all
suggest a more contextual approach.
 These and other focus dimensions may not be accepted by all
theoretical orientations to helping. What are your thoughts?
 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
the focusing 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?
Write your ideas in your journal.