Megan and Karin

            It was a Saturday November twenty third – two thousand and three when I conducted my interview with Megan Hinze. Megan is a 22 year old client from Holdrege, Nebraska and currently a senior at Creighton University. The interview was held at College of Saint Mary’s’ AV Room. Within this paper, I will go through the book: Intentional Interviewing and Counseling and the interview protocol to reflect on my performance as the counselor. I believe I have come a long way from the first tape I performed in September. At the beginning of the semester I began with minimal skills and now I feel that I have achieved a basic competence level to conduct a professional interview.

            It is important to have a comfortable greeting and demeanor.  Rapport is something that is established over time when. My goals in this interview were to use: attending behavior, follow the micro skills hierarchy, the counseling protocol from greeting and rapport to the assignment of activity to work toward reaching the goal. It is vital for Megan talk about her problems and has an appropriate goal for her problem 

As Megan walked into the room, I greeted her with a warm welcome; and asked her some questions. “Did you find the place ok?”  She replied, “yes they were very good directions.” Is the temperature in the room ok for you? “Yes it is fine. Would you like something to water or pop” she replied; “sure- do you have a coke?”   I practiced attending behavior from the very minute she walked into my office. Attending behavior includes culturally and individually appropriate eye contact, vocal qualities, verbal tacking, and body language. Attending behavior encourages the client to talk. “The three V’s and B have one common goal- to reduce interviewer talk time and to provide clients with an opportunity to tell the story as concretely and with as much detail as needed. In addition, these skills will help to enable clients to think about the meaning of their stories.”  Attending behavior is very comfortable for me, due to the fact that I am easy going, caring, and love to talk to people. At times, lack of attending behavior can be useful, but for my client Megan it was essential!

             After that initial phase, I moved on to the rules and exceptions of confidentiality.  Trust is built on ability to keep confidences.  Megan was told that the conversation will not go beyond the room except for three exceptions.1) If you intend to harm yourself 2) If you intend to harm someone else OR 3) If you have abused a vulnerable child or are abusing a child. I will contact the proper authorities whether it is the police, your family, friends or Child Protective Agencies (CPS). Megan asked again what the three exceptions were, and I clarified it to her again. We then proceeded to the start of the conversation.

The first task is to listen carefully to our client’s stories and learn how they come to think, feel, and act as they do. Development is the aim of counseling and interviewing. Expect your clients to have enormous capacity for growth.  Chapter one focused on cultural intentionality. One of the goals of this book is to encourage you to look at yourself and your style of listening. My goal was to use the (BLS) basic listening sequence. First, start with an overall summary of the goal. This is done initially through open questions. Next, we move on to the key facts of the situation. This is obtained by asking “what” questions and paraphrases. Lastly, are the central emotions and feelings? This is their reflection of feelings and use encourages that focus on expressive words.  I utilized this concept by asking an open ended question of what brings her in today.  Megan began to talk about her situation, which centered on her roommate, Karin. Karin and Megan have been friends for the last two years. Karin and Megan lived together in the dormitory sophomore year at Creighton- they had a great friendship and were “attached to the hip”, according to Megan. Everything seemed to change when Karin found a boyfriend.

 Megan discusses her frustrations she has experienced with Karin. She states that Karin does not pick up after herself, leaves trash sit for days, jams the freezer full of her food, is always with her boyfriend, avoids coming home at night,  does not feel comfortable in her living room and does not call when she is not going to stay at their apartment.

 I felt there were some discrepancies when she was talking about Karin’s boyfriend.  Megan’s tone about Jay was sarcastic; she looked down while at the same time stating it did not bother her. Megan discrepancy was in between what she said and what she did.   I did ask her in a direct challenge if she thinks that her roommate feels the same way. She replied by saying, “we should clean, but she does not do anything about it. “ I recognize now that I should have taken this subject further.  “It might be helpful to look deeper into your roommates’ feelings, by asking her if she is having a bad day or what is not letting her take part in the chores.” Megan repeated the word frustrated,” numerous times throughout the twenty-five minute session.

I then asked some open-ended questions, while using verbal tracking skills. Open questions help begin the interview, help elaborate and enrich the client’s story, while helping to bring out concrete specifics of the client’s world and   are a critical assessment. It also can help client’s search for positive assets. However some questions have potential problems.  I asked too many questions which can be bombarding, overwhelming and can often promote distrust. I inquired with the following” have you talked to her about a cleaning schedule?  Have you ever had confrontations with Karin in the past?”  She responded many times saying that I do not like confrontation, and I am not a confrontational person.  Megan used a lot of “I” statements.  “I have been having so many roommate issues, I don’t know how to approach her, and I am angered that let trash to overflow, I am stressed out.” This is her ownership for the issues, and it was useful to track down any changes in the session.

The narrative model of Intentional Interviewing and Counseling is very important: “First we need to hear client stories. We also need to listen for strengths and assets—empowerment is an increasingly vital part of both interviewing and counseling. With an understanding of client issues and personal power we have a basis for change. Restoring centers on developing client stores in new directions. The new story often makes action and change possible.” While listening to her story I was very empathetic, and in a very warm manner I to her I told her I was proud of her coming in and trying to work this out. She informed me that she was a senior at Creighton University majoring in marketing. In short I used the story-positive asset- restory -action theory.  I then went onto the restory aspect of the theory. I paraphrased and summarized what she said, and checked out for understanding before agreeing on what the actual problem was.  This not only benefits me, but also Megan because she knows that I have been listening, and knows there is light at the end of the tunnel.

After, exploring the problem and asking appropriate questions about her problem, I moved on to the definition of the problem. Please correct me, but “What I hear you saying is the problem in this situation is that there is lack of communication between you and Karin, that it is very frustrating that there is not a friendship anymore and finally, that you resent her because she is not able to help out?” Yes, Megan replied.

I jumped too soon, and asked her what idea she might suggest about alleviating and helping the situation.  She suggested a cleaning schedule and I concurred with her.  Explaining what the P.A.L.S. (Positive Apartment Living Situation) to her, I asked if that might that be helpful to her? I am not sure if I was clear or if she was interested because she asked me what are the benefits to having a meeting every other week.  After explaining that it will promote not only open communication, but will reduce problems building up because the both people can air them out so they won’t get bottled up.  I believe that there were only two perspectives on client concerns and that was the individual, and main them or problem focus. Pertaining to the individual focus, I used Megan’s name several times in the interview. During the main theme or problem focus, I spent time listening to Megan’s concerns, and issues.

The next question led me into a method of role playing.” Megan said, “So I would say “Hey Karin, I heard from a friend that there is a P.A.L.S., and I think it would help with some of our frustrations?”  After hearing that, I asked her if she would want to role play with me so she can feel more comfortable before talking to Karin. “Role playing is an especially effective concrete orientation technique. It makes the client behavior clear and specific. Given that clarity, changes in concrete behavior becomes much easier to make. “This is one of the most basic techniques used in assertiveness training p. 331”  Since, I found out in the beginning of the session she does not like confrontation this might be easier for her to talk to me.  She may also build some assertiveness too.  We then role played the discussion she would have with Karin.  Megan did an excellent job of staying calm, after going through the role play for about five minutes her body exemplified that she was relieved. Her body was relaxed, her facial expressions were happy, the tone of her voice was upbeat, and was more confident facing Karin.

Following up with questions about how the role-play went, she replied “very well.” Megan said that she felt more comfortable with the situation and that she was able to go ahead and confront Karin with her frustrations. BUT, Megan asked; “What if she does not like the idea, or what if it does not work.”  To be honest, I had not really thought about that not working I thought internally. “Megan you need to stay calm and the next time we meet we will discuss more options,” I said.   I feel that I had a nonjudgmental attitude because I listened without evaluating them and what they say as “good, or “bad.” “You convey your ability to be neutral and supportive by your 3 V’s + B= visuals, vocals, verbal following, and body language. Throughout the whole tape, I did a lot of encourages, uh- huh, I shook my head, yes, etc. I also was silent when she was explaining her story. 

 The goal of paraphrasing is the facilitation of the client exploration and the clarification of issues. “I sense you are frustrated, angry, etc” was used because I was not sure if I was right, and wanted her to explain more in detail. Restatements are vital. This is another type of encourager in which the counselor repeats shorts statements “You don’t feel comfortable in your apartment?”  “No, because Jay is always there.” In recognized Megan’s keywords in the interview. Her repeating words were: “frustrated, no time, angry, anxious, Jay, etc. “In hindsight, I wished I had used some of the keywords to go deeper into Megan’s feelings.  She denied having a problem with Jay, which seemed to be a discrepancy. Next time, I would go further into her feelings toward Karin, Jay, and how this is affecting her. The technique that I would use in future would be concrete emotional orientation because the feelings can be named, while working at getting specifics and what triggers emotions.

After noticing that I was off on the protocol, I skipped back to what the goal statement was. Her goal was to be able to talk to Karin, and establish a cleaning schedule, and have better communication.   We agreed that we explore the options of reaching the goal: role playing, cleaning schedule, pals meetings, and being calm and collective.  I checked out for clarity if she would feel comfortable using this method to bring up the situation to Karin.

Megans’ homework was to confront Karin and to suggest the ideas to her. As a counselor, I asked if she wanted to talk to me before confronting Karin and she liked that idea.

Teaching is an art of reflection.  As a teacher it is of greatest importance that we scrutinize and manage our utmost efforts, as well as adapt and revise our mistakes. I believe this is true in the counseling profession too!

The main concern I had in this interview is not uncovering more of Megan’s feelings toward this situation. I hunkered down and tried to solve the problem, but I should have probed her more about her feelings towards the situation.  I remembered asking, “How does that make you feel Megan.”  She responded that she was very frustrated and saddened that the friendship has dwindled. I thought there was deeper meaning to the situation when she talked about Karin’s’ boyfriend Jay. She seemed uneasy and had many discrepancies when I asked her about him.  I should have questioned her more about her feelings toward him.                        

Reflecting on the tape, I also noticed that I need to listen before I leap. In one instance, when she was explaining about the trash problem I immediately went onto the next problem. Maybe she needed to say more information or have feelings that were not evident on the surface!

As for the mix up when I asked her about her furniture problem, Megan and I had previously run through a practice session.  It was at that time that this subject was brought up as a problem. Karin wanted expensive furniture for their apartment. Megan feels that she cannot sit on them. I forgot that she did not say that dilemma in this session and that is why the mix up came about. Then she tried to help me out, by saying “I think I told your receptionist that.” I need to have better verbal tracking throughout the whole session especially the beginning!

My attending skills were phenomenal, but the part that was lacking was body language. Watching the tape, my heels of my boot was distracting, and I was playing with them half of the session.  Even though I asked if I could take notes in the session I tried to, but it seemed as if I was being inattentive, and rude.

My attending skills were a positive in this interview.  I did a great job with my vocal qualities. My voice was not one tone, and it flux acted during the session with emphasis during different elements. I felt that I was very sympathetic towards her situation; I was warm, caring, calming, and comfortable to talk to.   She could tell that I really was really interested in what I had to say. Next, I stayed on task pretty much with the verbal tracking. I did not go off the subject, and I stuck with the client’s story.

             I felt my attentive skills were evident.  Throughout the session I was faced squarely with them, leaned forward, had an expressive face, used facilitative, and encouraged gestures. I even touched Megan’s knee a couple times.  Because she was a friend of mine that is why I touched her, but for people who are new clients I will stay more reserved and would not touch them. I feel that touch is essential but it is important to read and get to know the clients before knowing it is ok and not going out of line of their boundaries, and making them feel uncomfortable. With the concern of taking notes, during the session I had good visual eye contacts. When I talked with Megan I made sure to look at her in the eye. It is important to look at them, not stare off to space that is rude and disrespectful.  Next time, I would have Megan be Karin because she knows Karin. This would help me analyze any suggestions or questions that Karin might bring up, and give Megan some ideas how to handle the conversation.

            Throughout this semester I gained the skills and knowledge to perform a professional interview.  I feel that through the interview the skills I learned were evident.  I am very proud of my performance, and look forward to building more counseling skills. 

Reference Page

Allen, Ivey and Mary Bradford. Intentional Interviewing and Counseling.

 Pacific Grove: Thomson Learning, 2003.