Good evening everyone! Monica and I had another meeting this week in order to practice some more motivational interviewing skills! This week I wanted to focus on the latest chapter that we have all read, chapter nine in Rosengren. This chapter was all about information sharing, offering a concern, and giving advice.
I thought that this chapter was particularly interesting as this is something as a counselor in training, I struggle a lot with. When I first started this program and worked with a mock client, I found myself stuck in trying to offer advice, when truly that was not my place. Firstly, after reading this chapter, I know I was doing it incorrectly and in a way that would have been unhelpful. Secondly, after reading this chapter, I have now learned how to better navigate around this in a more helpful and appropriate way.
To begin my work with Monica in this session, I was testing out a few different styles that learned about on page 223 in Rosengren. These different styles include the directing style, the following style, and the guiding style. I was practicing active listening, asking relevant questions, and providing expertise in the form of advice and plans of action.
If you have been following my personal MI experiences, you know Monica has been role playing this “client” that has a serious problem with her phone usage while operating a motor vehicle. With this particular example, there have been many times where I wanted to offer concern as the dangers of texting and driving are real and the consequences can be deadly.
In my approach to this session, I really wanted to focus on the basic concepts that are listed and described on page 224 and forward of Rosengren. The concept I want to share with all of you is my practice of the concept: “using client statements.” I was mirroring what Monica was saying to me so that she can better observe what she was saying, and in turn make sense of the different elements of her statements. An example of this is as follows:
Monica: Like I have said before… I just do not think that texting while driving is that serious if I am more careful. If I ever get my car back, I will be sure to just be more cautious of my surroundings, I know texting while driving is dangerous if you are not careful so I will be more careful.
Me: So while you know texting while driving can be dangerous, you believe if it is done more carefully and with extreme caution, it is not that serious and can be done?
Monica: Well.. I mean yes. I don't know, I mean if you are VERY careful, it is fine. I guess it sounds bad when you say it like that.
In Monica’s response to my mirroring of her statements, she was able to observe what she had said to me and even reemphasize with more importance that if texting is done carefully it is okay, and then admit it sounds kind of odd out loud. This was an interesting response back and a technique that I thought was particularly helpful in getting through to Monica.
Overall, I believe that she received the information well and expressed that she felt listened to when I was restating back to her. I think that I showed great strength in restatements. I only provided you with one example I remembered clearly (above) however, I did practice this quite a few times with Monica throughout our session. For growth, I believe that I need to practice inviting clients to decide what provided information means for them. I did not touch on this too much in this blog post because I did try this in session with Monica, but it did not go as planned. I did not have statistics on phones usage while driving readily on hand so that was unhelpful.
A question for further consideration has to do with providing information in the context of other clients. I am wondering what happens when a client expresses that it does not matter how other clients have been treated or what worked for them, they themselves are unique, and that information would not helpful for them? A stubborn and resistant client, if you will. Just something I was kind of thinking about while I read that section.
Thank you!
Jocelyn,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great example and I agree that you handled the situation well. With regards to your concern about the stubborn and “unique” client I wonder if this is where empathy and concern could play a part. Perhaps you could say that because you are such a special and unique individual I have to admit that I am concerned I could loose such a special client due to an injury or something even more severe due to an accident which was the result of texting while driving. If that were to happen I would feel awful if I had not done my due diligence in warning you about the risks and consequences others have faced while practicing this behavior. I know the wording is not great but hopefully you get the idea.
I used this technique somewhat on a client by reviewing and restating some of the consequences she already encountered due to risky behavior and then showed concern that it was putting her further from her goals and lowering her faith in herself to accomplish these goals when it really wasn’t necessarily her failing but her behavior choices interfering with her success.
Lisa
Hi Jocelyn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I found it to be very insightful and informative for me. This was a skill that I struggle with and practiced as well during the last interview session. I did not feel strong in my ability to practice this skill with a client. Your post has a lot of great information that will help me in my next attempt. I will be looking more into the different guiding styles that you mention and see if those help me. I think your question about how to handle a resistant client is a really good one. It is something we all are going to encounter throughout our experience as counselors. I think it is important when offering a suggestion to a client that we say this may not work for you but I have found it works for others. That way you are addressing that everyone is different and you can ask the client what they think will work and if they have any suggestions. It makes it more of a collaborative process between the therapist and client. Great post!