6) Chapter 11: Influencing Client Actions and Decisions: Empathic Self-Disclosure, Feedback, Directives, Psychoeducation, Logical Consequences, and Decisional Counselling (Ivey et al., 2024)

Feedback

Presents clients with clear information on how the counsellor believes they are thinking, feeling, or behaving and how significant others may view them or their performance.

Power

Is part of the act of helping. Simply by being a client, one begins counselling with perceived lesser power than the counsellor or psychotherapist. This power relationship may remain, or you can work toward a more equal relationship with the client.

Self-disclosure

Means that you share your own related past life experience, here-and-now observations or feelings toward the client, or opinions about the future. Self-disclosure often starts with an "I" statement. Here-and-now feelings toward the client can be powerful and should be used carefully.

What are the 3 forms of self-disclosure?

- Deliberate
- Unavoidable
- Accidental

Dangers of self-disclosure?

- Take the focus away from the client
- Cross counselling boundaries
- May interrupt the client's emotional, cognitive, and reflecting process

If the therapist is significantly different from the client on any dimension of the RESPECTFUL model, the differences may need to be discussed?

True

5 key aspects of self-disclosure?

- Listen
- Self-disclosure and share briefly
- Use "I" statements
- Share and describe briefly your thoughts, feelings, or behaviours
- Be empathically genuine and use appropriate immediacy and tense

How can a therapist show genuineness?

Counsellors must truly and honestly share feelings, thoughts, or experiences. Self-disclosure must be genuine and appropriate concerning the client.

How can a therapist show immediacy?

Focus on the "here" and "now" in relation to the "there" and "then."

How can a therapist show timeliness?

If the client wants to discuss a topic but is having trouble, some self-disclosure may be helpful.

How can a therapist acknowledge cultural implications and exploring differences?

Self-disclosure requires more forethought when culturally different from the client.

Empathic feedback

Presents clients with clear, nonjudgmental information on how the counsellor believes they are thinking, feeling, or behaving and how significant others may view them or their performance.

Knowing

How others see us is a powerful dimension in human change, and it is most helpful if the client solicits feedback.

Authentic feedback

Can be negative, which provides little help. It can also be corrective and clarify the situation.

Positive feedback

Is concrete, strengths-based feedback that helps clients restory their problems and concerns. Whenever possible, find things right about your client.

Corrective feedback

Is a delicate balance between negative feedback and positive suggestions for the future. When clients need to seriously examine themselves, corrective feedback may need to focus on things that clients are doing wrong or behaviour that may hurt them in the future.

Negative feedback

May be necessary when the client has not been willing to hear corrective feedback. However, it is to bemused rarely and with care and empathy. Otherwise, the client is almost certain to reject what you say.

Directives

Share specific information with the client (ex. Career information, possible college majors, where to go for community assistance and services).

Providing information

Offer advice or opinions on how to resolve issues and provide useful suggestions for personal change.

What are some dangers of therapist's providing advice to clients?

Providing information and advice can cause clients to rely too much on you and fail to make their own decisions, which can result in dependency or a complete rejection of your ideas

Psychoeducation

Is similar to information giving, but the counsellor takes on more of a teaching role and provides systematic ways for clients to increase their life skills. This has become prominent in cognitive behavioral counselling in recent years, and it is used as a way to prepare the client to meet challenging situations.

Life skills training

Involves role playing and enactment of scenes from the client's life or situations anticipated in the future.

What distinguishes psychoeducation from directives, information, and advice?

Psychoeducation integrates listening and many other influencing skills as well.

What are the benefits of psychoeducation?

Teaches social skills, how to plan for a college application, decision making, developing a better understanding of how culture and cultural identity affect one's life, etc.

Logical consequences

Explore specific alternatives with the client and the concrete positive and negative consequences that would logically follow from each one.

Negative consequences

Are undesirable, painful, or aversive results of our decisions or actions. Potential negative consequences could include the harm caused by smoking while pregnant, the disruption of long-term friendships, or the problem of moving children to a new school.

Positive consequences

Are desirable and enjoyable results of our decisions or actions. Potential positive consequences could include a pay raise, a better school system, or a healthier environment. It is part of the logical consequences skill.

Brainstorming

Is a technique used to gather multiple ideas to find a possible solution. It encourages clients to "loosen up" and let any thought come to their mind. You can help through your own creativity, but focus on helping clients generate their own solutions.

Decisional counselling

Is a practical model that recognizes decision making and the microskills as a foundation for most (perhaps all) systems of counselling. Another term for decisional counselling is problem solving counselling.

Cognitive and emotional balance sheet

Is an extension of logical consequences, but with each alternative written down in a list of gains and losses.

Hypothalamus

Is a master gland controlling hormones that affect heart rate and biological body responses to emotions such as hunger, sleep, and aggression as well as other biological factors.

Pituitary

Is a control gland that receives messages from the hypothalamus and influences growth, blood pressure, sexual functioning, the thyroid, and metabolism.

Adrenal glands

Produce corticosteroids, including cortisol. They also produce the neurotransmitter epinephrine (also known as adrenaline or norepinephrine) that regulates heart rate and the fight-or-flight response.