Interview and Counseling Intake Interview

Interview and Counseling Intake Interview

Based On a Mock Trial

Jane Doe

University of Central Florida

Abstract

The first interview in a counseling session must cover many topics in a short period of time. The background of the client is one of the most important things to learn along with why the client initiated the session with the therapist. A mock interview was done to accomplish this first intake interview. The client brought forth a problem with depression, anxiety, stress, and marital problems due to the scenarios seen through his job as a LEO. Thorough communication throughout the mock interview the client was able to properly portray to the therapist certain ideas and feelings. Multiple interviewing techniques are accomplished through this mock interview to build rapport, understanding, and to find the goal(s) that the client wants to achieve through the journey of therapy.

Keywords: PTSD, (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), LEO (Law Enforcement Officer)

Interviewing and Counseling Intake Interview

Based On a Mock Trial

The mock trial was produced to show the ability of techniques and skills acquired and to use these techniques and skills in a real-life scenario. The mock client for this interview is a Law Enforcement Officer at a disclosed agency. Law Enforcement Officers face many problems throughout their job. One important aspect that is becoming more widely accepted is that LEO’s should see therapists whenever they feel they are having trouble processing their emotions due to the job and also after a critical incident. Many Law Enforcement Officers experience a variety of emotions. The client for this mock trial has mentioned feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. The client has also expressed having marital discord due to these emotions he is feeling. The interview techniques and skills expressed throughout will help lead the client to realize his potential goal(s).

Background

Interviewing and counseling have been used increasingly throughout the past century, but has been seen in simpler forms as early as the Enlightenment era in areas such as Egypt, Persia, and Mesopotamia (Hackney & Cormier, 2013, p. 2). A larger proportion of people in society today though have a misconceived notion about therapy. There are people that view people seeking therapy as being “broken” or “crazy”. This unfortunate misconception has shaped the view of therapy for quite some time. Unless you know the true process of therapy and the goals of therapy, many may keep this misperception. What some people may not know is that therapy, interviewing, and counseling is actually quite broad and can range from situations such as critical incident stress debriefings, work evaluations, marriage counseling, and of course individual counseling and therapy.

There have been multiple therapy techniques developed over the years, some have shown promise and stability while others haven’t been so successful. Depending on the success rate of these techniques determines if they become more universally accepted or if they get rejected through trial and error. Hackney and Cormier (2013) included a list of theory/therapy types and the proportion of counselors that prefer to practice them as cited by Prochaska and Norcross (2010), “eclectic approach (37%), followed by existential/humanistic theory (13%), cognitive theories (10%), person-centered therapy (8%), psychodynamic theories (8%), systemic theories (7%), and behavioral approaches (6%)” (p. 5). With this being said there are four main approaches that counselors use, these being the psychodynamic approach, the transpersonal approach, humanistic and cognitive/behavioral approaches (Hackney & Cormier, 2013, p. 2).

Most recently there has been a shift in how counselors are using these different therapy approaches and theories. There has been the introduction the eclectic or integrative approach to therapy. This is the combination of multiple therapy approaches/theories to use in practice on the clients (Hackney & Cormier, 2013, p. 5). This is a newer development with the realization that not one single approach may benefit the client. The therapist will learn the client’s personality and characteristics and then determine which combination of approaches would most benefit the client to reach his or her full potential and goal(s). Not only is it about the client though, the counselor must keep in mind which approaches he or she is comfortable practicing. All in all, not one client is the same and not every client is going to benefit from one individual approach, therefore the client could quite possibly be accessing a higher rate of success among his/her clients with the integrative approach.

Overview of Mock Interview

The first interview with a client is one of the most important and beneficial. It is a chance to not only introduce why the client has chosen to see a counselor, but it’s also a chance to begin building the client-therapist relationship. Building a rapport with the client is one of the more important techniques a therapist can accomplish. With this rapport, the client feels a stronger comfort level and is therefore able to open up to the therapist without feeling judged. Other techniques that are important for the client-therapist relationship and for communication to prosper is the ability for proper language use and sentence/question formation and keeping cultural differences and similarities in mind. Pauses and moments of silence are to allow the client to think, process, and elaborate or add additional information. The therapist should also use nonverbal communication, paraphrasing, and clarification to portray to the client a sense of understanding and confirmation.

Preceding the session with my client I overviewed the paperwork given to me about my client, just to get an idea of the basics of who I was about to see. I knew I was about to begin a session with a male client and I recalled part of an article I studied about counseling men, “The male experience is framed by context, power, character, personalities, and relationships, which are interwoven in complex ways” (Duffey & Haberstroh, 2014). This would beneficial to keep in mind. Now, some therapists may find some reasons as to why there may be a conflict with the client that may interfere with the session from being beneficial to themselves and the client; the therapist would possibly then refer him or her to someone else. “The counselor must also make an initial assessment of the situation, determine that his or her skills are appropriate to the client’s presenting concerns, and that the interaction of personalities and personal values are a good match for counseling success” (Hackney & Cormier, 2013). As I found no reason to not proceed with the interview, I welcomed my client into the room. The atmosphere of the room is exceedingly essential for creating that positive first impression. I made sure the client had a number of options as to where to sit, whichever would make him the most comfortable. I also made sure to not have any type of table or ottoman in between where the client would sit and myself. If there is an object between myself and the client, the client may feel as though I am closing myself off to them; that I am psychologically putting a wall between myself and the client (Hackney & Cormier, 2013, p. 20). The client also focuses on the therapists’ body language. Depending on how the therapist is sitting can determine the client’s comfort (Hackney and Cormier, 2013, p. 20). I made sure to sit in a position that wasn’t intense and wasn’t blocked, I made myself open and relaxed to give the client a sense of security.

After introducing ourselves I made sure to cover the confidentiality of our session, everything stays between myself and the client, unless under certain circumstances as explained through the ethics of counseling and therapy. I then began to explain that this initial interview was an in-take and history interview, rather than a therapeutic session. (Hackney & Cormier, 2013, p. 75). It is necessary to disclose this because many clients want an instant fix and they need to understand that it is a process and that process begins with the initial evaluation and history of the client. After all of this information was given, the in-take interview process began. I asked the client why he was seeking counseling and he advised me that he had begun to feel overwhelmingly stressed and anxious and was afraid that he was becoming depressed. Without going into too much detail about this at this stage I began to probe a bit about this and asked him when he thought these feelings began to start. The client advised me that the episodes began a few months after starting his career as a Law Enforcement Officer.

Moving forward from this I asked more about his background and history. This included history as a child, in school, relationships with parents and siblings, work history, marital status, etc. Making a mental note to myself in the session I recalled, “Counselors who seek to understand their male clients as unique human beings while being aware of the multifaceted aspects of masculinity can better conceptualize their clients’ needs and respond with accurate and genuine empathy” (Duffey & Haberstroh, 2014). Throughout all of this information given to me by the client I made sure to use appropriate nods, used nonverbal and verbal communication, showed empathetic regard to my client, and was also note-taking and recording the session for later use (Hackney & Cormier, 2013). When I was presented with information given that was ambiguous I would ask probing questions and ask the client to explain a bit further with specific instances and examples. I would also ask questions to allow me to lead and/or to infer feelings and emotions (Hackney and Cormier, 2013, p. 83). Along with these techniques, throughout the interview thus far I would in some instances, paraphrase what the client was saying once he finished speaking. This gave me the option to determine and confirm that I was correctly understanding the client’s communication, emotions, and situation given. Not only did paraphrasing give me the option to confirm understanding, but it also gave the client the opportunity to hear back what he said to help develop insight and giving them an opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings (Hackney & Cormier, 2013). After receiving all of the information necessary for the interview I began ending the session with my client. I asked him what he wanted his goal or goals for therapy to be and I also gave my feedback on his goal and goals as well with the problems presented in this session (Hackney and Cormier 2013, p. 82). I explained my thoughts about the session and what I thought would be beneficial to the client as well, which approaches to use based on the information given to me throughout his in-take interview and assessment (Hackney and Cormier, 2013, p. 82).

Presented Problems

Throughout the interview, the assessment of the background and history of my client was the first and foremost purpose of this in-take interview. But, briefly overviewing why the client was seeking therapy in the first place would also be a key factor into continuing the sessions. The client as mentioned previously described feelings of anxiety, depression, and intense amounts of stress. When probing I found that these feelings began and intensified soon after beginning his career as a Law Enforcement Officer. I found that there was a definite correlation between the two as he began to explain more about his job duties and experiences he has had while on shift.

When I asked the client questions about his marital status he did tell me that he was married. Through further questions the client and I began to understand that since starting his career as LEO there was also a correlation with problems in his marriage arising. He began to explain to me that he felt a lot of pressure and stress at work and situations he came across while working would greatly affect his mood. He would take these feelings home with him, but not open up to his wife, and as he said she began feeling shut out. He mentioned he couldn’t just shake away these feelings of sadness from certain calls during his shift and he then started having anxiety about how they were affecting him.

I have done some research about stress, anxiety, and depression with LEO’s previously but after this session I feel as though more research would be necessary to continue therapy sessions with the client to guarantee his benefit. I explained to him that he was not alone in feeling this way. I informed him that it was found that LEO’s that were married did in fact experience much higher levels of stress, anxiety, and even depression when compared to the LEO’s that were not married (Husain & Sajjad, 2012). I explained to him that I also felt as though it would be beneficial to him to participate in marriage counseling as one of his goals while also continuing therapy sessions individually. Not only do LEO’s experience stress, anxiety, and depression, but they are also highly capable of developing PTSD. Knowing this I advised the client that I would don’t believe he has PTSD, but that it is something that I would like to evaluate further. He agree with this and he also agreed to continuing individual sessions and also agreed that he would discuss marriage counseling with this wife.

Conclusion

The mock in-take interview and assessment was beneficial into understanding the appropriate techniques used in a therapy session. The techniques therapists used throughout their sessions with clients guarantee a positive rapport is built between the client and the therapist (Hackney & Cormier, 2013). With the rapport that is developed the client is therefore able to open and feel secure with this relationship. This secureness that the client feels is essential for successful therapeutic sessions in reaching the client’s ultimate goal(s). As counseling becomes increasingly universally accepted, the more people will understand its systematic ways of creating a more functional intrapersonal unity and interpersonal relationships and skills.

Works Cited

Duffey, T., & Haberstroh, S. (2014). Developmental Relational Counseling: Applications for Counseling Men. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(1), 104-113. Doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00136.x

Hackney, Harold L., & Cormier, Sherry. The Professional Counselor: A Process Guide to Helping. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. Print.

Husain, W., & Sajjad, R. (2012). Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Married & Unmarried Police Officers. FWU Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1), 43-47.

Lucas, T., Weidner, N., & Janisse, J. (2012). Where does work stress come from? A generalizability analysis of stress in police officers. Psychology & Health, 27(12), 1426-1447. Doi: 10.1080/08870446.2012.687738.

McCoy, S. P., & Aamodt, M. G. (2010). A Comparison of Law Enforcement Divorce Rates With Those of Other Occupations. Journal Of Police & Criminal Psychology, 25(1), 1-16. Doi: 10.1007/s11896-009-9057-8.

Miller, L. (2007). Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions. American Journal Of Family Therapy, 35(1), 21-40. Doi: 10.1080/01926180600698541.

VIOLANTI, J. (., CHARLES, L. (., HARTLEY, T. (., MNATSAKANOVA, A. (., ANDREW, M. (., FEKEDULEGN, D. (., & …BURCHFIEL, C. (. (0001). Shift-Work and Suicide Ideation Among Police Officers (English). American Journal Of Industrial Medicine, 51(10), 758-768.

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Paige Schulze

PCO-4203C-0W59

November 17th, 2014

Two Minute Transcript from Mock Interview

Therapist: You said that you’re a police officer and that you’ve been experiencing some feelings of sadness, anxiety, and that you’ve also been stressed. Do you think the two have anything to do with each other?

Client: I do. My job puts a lot of stress on me anyways and some of the situations I’m put in sometimes stick with me even when I go home.

Therapist: What do you mean by the situations sometimes stick with you? Can you give me an example or explain this more to me?

Client: Well, some things that I see are really hard to get over, they’re sad situations that involve young kids, or anything like that and it becomes something that affects my mood at home because I think about it a lot. I guess I wish I didn’t have to see it or I wish I could have done something more.

Therapist: Okay. I understand. That would be hard to let go. You mentioned to me that you were married. Do you talk to your wife about any of these feelings you have?

Client: Not really. (long pause for client to process and elaborate). I’ll tell her if I’ve had a more difficult day but I don’t go in to details about it because I don’t want her to hear all the bad stories. But I feel like sometimes I distance myself from her because of not wanting to share and I can tell that it upsets her and I can tell it’s causing some problems between us.

Therapist: I understand. You’re saying you don’t want her to have to hear all of the bad stories because of how sad they are? Is that correct?

Client: Yes.

Therapist. Okay. Have you tried telling her your emotions from what happened during the day, but not the actual story of what happened?

Client: I guess not. Usually I just say it’s been a hard day and leave it at that.