Chapter Four: Getting Started: How to Pay Attention to What the Client Wants
When you first meet the Client:
1. When meeting a client for the first time, it is important to ask them client how they want to be ___________.
2. The authors suggest that is also a good idea to ask clients how they spend most of their ___________ time; this may be useful in starting to uncover useful solution building information.
3. When an interview takes place in a home, it may be helpful to start off by noticing something nice or attractive or something in which the client has put a lot of ___________; this type of question may demonstrate ___________ for the client and put the client in the role of ___________, while also uncovering strengths and interests.
Clarifying how you Work:
4. Before going too deeply into the client’s concerns, it is helpful to clarify how the meeting will be ___________ and whether this organization is acceptable to the client
Problem Description
5. Remember that to work within the client’s frame of reference, we must assume a posture of ___________.
6. You must affirm the client’s ___________, taking note of the ___________ the client uses.
How does the problem affect the client?
7. Client perceptions are ___________ and shifting; sometimes helping them put their perceptions into words can result in a shift of ___________.
8. Clients often seek help with problems or concerns that are poorly ___________; it is helpful for both client and interviewer for the interviewer to clarify concerns.
What has the client tried?
9. It is helpful to ask the client what they have tried so far to solve their problems; this communicates to the client that you think they are ___________ and may provide you with some strengths and ___________ on which to build.
What is most important for the client to work on first?
10. Clients may come in with an overwhelming number of concerns; it is helpful to make this seem more ___________ by acknowledging how difficult things are then asking them to identify what is the most important area for them to address first. It is then helpful to follow up with a question about what makes that area the most important to work on ___________; this will help you see the client’s perspective and also respects client ______________________.
How to Work with Clients on What They Might Want
11. Problem talk repeatedly circles back to the problem ___________ and the fallout from these problems
12. Solution talk focuses on what the client would want to have ___________ in their life.
13. Client need to have enough time for problem talk to feel they are being ___________. You can often shift into solution talk 10 or 15 minutes into the interview.
A. Customer Type Relationships
14. In this type of relationship, a problem and or solution picture towards which to work are ___________ identified by the client and practitioner.
15. This type of relationship is most commonly associated with clients who come in for services ___________ and recognize that getting help will require considerable effort on their part.
16. It is important not to label a client as ___________ or non cooperative or in other ways based on whether they are voluntary or other initial factors; relationships change through out and___________usually result in judgment.
Complainant-Type Relationship
17. This is the relationship that develops when the client and interviewer are able to jointly identify a complaint or problem but have difficulty in identifying a ___________ for the client in building a solution; the client often does not perceive themselves as a part of the ___________, rather believing that the solution is for someone else to ___________.
18. In this type of relationship, the client will often want the counselor to meet with the other person, to ___________him or her.
19. This may also be a situation in which the client simply wants the interviewer to ___________.
20. The author’s suggest that the client does not need to be coerced into ___________ ___________for their own life; rather the skills in chapter three can help the client to shift their ___________ from problem talk to solution talk.
21. In the brief discussion between Insoo and Alice, Insoo does not challenge Alice’s perceptions; instead she keeps gearing the conversation to what could or might be ___________ and thus helping the later formation of well defined goals.
22. Complainant-type relationships may change in to a customer-type relationship with the interviewer repeatedly inviting the client to focus on themselves; this emphasizes that these changes generally reflect what the interviewer does in the ___________ rather than what the client says.
23. If the client continues to have difficulty switching to solution talk, you can try to refocus on the client with questions about what they might ___________ that would tell them the problem is solved, using ___________ to determine what the client thinks of the possibility of solving the problems, and then using the ratings to get fuller descriptions, or using ___________ questions.
Visitor-Type Relationships
24. In this relationship, the client and interviewer cannot jointly identify a ___________ or goal on which to work.
25. Clients who have been forced to seek treatment MAY fall into this category, but it is important to avoid making that ___________.
26. The interviewer’s focus in this relationship is the same as in others – to find out what the client might want from the ___________.
27. In the case of Beth, the professionals involved believed that the attempts to assist Beth failed because of Beth’s lack of ___________; Insoo followed the solution focused method and instead of expecting a lack of cooperation, she approached Beth with a posture of ___________. Insoo did not question Beth’s perceptions but she did respectfully ask for clarification of them and through this both gained more information than previous workers and she was able to engage in a relationship with Beth.
28. A solution focused practitioner is genuinely ___________ about both the clients’ perceptions about themselves and their circumstances and the client’s ___________ about what they might want.
29. In situations in which the client is forced to be there, the client’s perceptions are profoundly influenced by how the clients ___________ ___________ seeing this interviewer.
30. Many clients who are forced into treatment by others (___________ who may have a different agenda) may come into the interview expecting the interviewer to listen more closely to the outside sources than to the client. The natural response to coercion is ___________ and ___________
What if Clients Want What is Not Good for Them?
31. If a client wants something that you do not think is good for them, you assume the client is ___________ and continue to ask the client to ___________ his or her perceptions.
32. This may also be an opportunity to ask ___________ questions.
33. The interviewer may eventually end up having to take away the client’s ______________________in certain situations but this will generally be after several solution building procedures have been tried.
What if Clients Do Not Want Anything at All?
34. If the relationship remains a visitor type relationship, this will influence the type of ___________ you give the client (to be addressed in later chapters).
Influencing Client Cooperation and Motivation
35. Notions of resistance on the part of the client come from the ___________ model.
36. In the solution building model, resistance is seen as ___________ as the client is telling the interviewer that the tasks the interviewer has suggested do not fit their way of doing things.
37. Solution building assumes the client is ___________ and can figure out what they want and how to go about getting it.
38. Working with a joint definition of the client’s problem and what the client might want is the best means of enhancing client ___________.
True or False
1.The authors state that asking clients about how they spend most of their work-day time is a useful way in which to uncover what is important to clients and some of their strengths.
2.In solution-focused interviewing, practitioners often take a break after interviewing the client about their concerns, goals, and strengths in order to think about what the client has said and to formulate some end-of-session feedback for the client before ending the interview.
3.In solution-focused interviewing, the interviewer works with clients using classifications of client problems developed by theorists in the helping professions.
4.Working within the client's frame of reference means asking for, listening to, and affirming the client's perceptions, all the while taking note of the words which the client uses to capture her perceptions.
5.Part of the rationale for asking clients about what they have already tried to solve their problems is to send them the message that the interviewer believes that they are competent to make good things happen in their lives.
6.De Jong and Berg prefer to think in terms of what sort of relationship is developing between a practitioner and client rather than to think of clients as voluntary or involuntary, or as cooperative or uncooperative.
7.When clients state that the significant others in their lives are causing their problems and, therefore, there is little that they can do to solve them, De Jong and Berg suggest that it is useful for practitioners to challenge such a point of view as self defeating because it leaves clients’ situations unchanged.
8.According to the authors, the relationship between practitioner and client is influenced by how the practitioner talks to the client.
9.In the case of Beth, it was helpful for the social worker to point out the facts of the case from the police and hospital reports.
10.De Jong and Berg believe that an interviewer can both take a not-knowing stance with clients and, at the same time, hold them accountable for their perceptions.
11.In cases where the clients have been referred or pressured into services by collaterals (egs. parents or the court), practitioners should think of themselves as having more than one client (i.e. the client and the collaterals).
12.In solution-focused interviewing, practitioners try to maintain a “not knowing” stance except in cases where clients say they want something which practitioners strongly believe is not good for them.
13.Steve de Shazer argues that what practitioners in the past have interpreted to be client resistance is more accurately understood as worker resistance to solving problems in ways which fit clients’ normal ways of doing things.
Multiple Choice
1.A ________ -type of relationship exists when client and practitioner can jointly identify a problem and a solution picture to work toward, and when the client is willing to do something about the problem.
a. customer
b. complainant
c. visitor
d. voluntary
2. A ________ -type of relationship exists when client and practitioner can jointly identify a problem but are unable yet to identify a role for the client in building a solution.
a. customer
b. complainant
c. visitor
d. involuntary
3. A ________ -type of relationship exists when the client and practitioner are unable to jointly define a problem on which to work.
a. customer
b. complainant
c. visitor
d. involuntary
4. In the case of Beth in the text, when she began working with the social worker, she stood in a -type relationship to services.
a. customer
b. complainant
c. visitor
d. voluntary
5. In the case of Beth, Insoo and Beth moved toward a customer-type relationship by focusing primarily on:
a. the nature of Beth's problems with her parents.
b. defining what Beth wanted to be different.
c. the errors in the police and hospital reports.
d. Beth's feelings.