Steps

Listen carefully without interfering but be encouraging in getting your clients to speak, providing open questions and closed questions appropriately and sharing reflections to make them feel understood.

a. Before the session, make sure your physical needs are taken care of (thirst, hunger, bathroom, stretching)

b. Introduce yourself to the client. Make sure s/he is aware of the purpose of the talk and in a comfortable/private environment to disclose information.

c. Sit face to face and look at the speaker. Taking a few notes can keep you on task.

d. Watch your non-verbal messages

e. Encourage the speaker to continue with short, gentle comments like “uhhuh”, “really?”, “tell me more”, etc.

f. If the person is not normally talkative, you may have to refer to your brief one or two word notes and ask an open question. Ask about previous experiences in regard to their situation of concern, and what was helpful and not helpful about those experiences, so you can quickly learn how the client responds to and deals with crisis in general. Avoid close ended questions. For example you can ask: What are some of the ways you use to address the situation you are describing to me?

By using probing through open ended question, you will gain an understanding of the situation and be better informed to assist appropriately. Use What, Why, How, leading questions to probe for more information. Ask questions such as

a. Do you have an idea about why this keeps happening?

b. What is your plan B?

c. How does that make you feel?

d. Ask a few follow-up questions to get a broad understanding of the issue

e. Ask if there are any other major concerns apart from what you are currently discussing that might be contributing to their situation of concern.

Building Confidence and Giving Support Skills requires that you engage other skills in your conversation to make your client feel confident and come up with their own solutions for their problem. We call these “building confidence and giving support skills”. People can take action easily when they are confident that they will succeed and get positive results from their action. If the decision for the action is individual, the chance for the person to take action increases tremendously because the person owns the decision. However, if a person easily loses confidence in oneself, this may lead him/her to feel that s/he is a failure and give in to pressure from family and friends. The following are some of the tips to avoid such a scenario:

a. It is important not to disagree with a person/client

b. It is also important not to agree with an idea that you think is not right. You may want to suggest something quite different but that can be difficult if you have already agreed with him/her. Instead, you just accept what she thinks or feels. Accepting means responding in a neutral way, and not agreeing or disagreeing. Reflecting back and giving simple responses are useful ways to show acceptance. Later in the discussion, you can give information to correct a mistaken idea. In a similar way, empathizing can show acceptance of his/her feelings

a. Recognize what s/he already knows and explain new things she can do based on what s/he knows and does currently.

b. Tell him/her things that s/he can use today, not in a few weeks’ time.

c. Explaining the reason for difficulty is often the most relevant support when it comes to helping a person understand what is happening.

d. Give information in a positive way, so that it does not sound critical, or make the person think that s/he has been doing something wrong. This is especially important if you want to correct a mistaken idea. For example, instead of saying, “Thin porridge is not good for your baby”, you could say “Thick foods help the baby to grow”. You must be careful not to tell or command him/her to do something. Instead try to find what s/he can do and let him/her to decide for his/her own action.