Assignment Task: When engaging with justice-involved individuals, you should apply observational skills and sound interviewing practices to develop a good rapport. The better you are able to interact with other people, the more you will be able to promote positive behavioral change. In this assignment, observe a counseling session. While you might not be doing counseling specifically in the future, the techniques for interviewing in counseling can greatly assist you.
Imagine you have been asked to observe one of the counselors at your agency and report to your supervisor on different strategies that the counselor used that you may implement as you work with justice-involved individuals.
Navigate to the University Library and watch the "Counseling with a Mother who has an Out-of-Control Teen: The Essential Counselor" video.
Observe how the counselor interacts and responds to the mother. Take notes about what occurred in the session, what problems arose, and what strategies the counselor used to promote positive behavioral change. Use what you learned from Chapters 4 and 5 to identify key traits that the counselor should be displaying and whether or not you feel the counselor displays those traits. Listen to the interaction between counselor and client. Examine and comment on any issues of counter transference (the feelings/reactions the counselor has toward the client) in the context of the therapeutic relationship.
A word interview observation summary.?Consider the following questions:
1. What is your assessment of the effectiveness of the counselor and the accuracy of her understanding of the client's issues?
2. What comments or interventions do you think are therapeutically helpful or not helpful?
3. How might you have worked differently with the client?
4. How does this interview demonstrate skills that would be helpful for promoting positive behavioral change with clients within the justice system?