Lesson 1: Interviewing and Counseling

Attention

This first lesson is about getting oriented to the purpose of this course. The title of the course is "Interviewing and Counseling" and implies the use of verbal skills to engage your clients. While we do a lot more "interviewing" than we do "counseling" the skills needed for both of these processes are very similar. This Lesson will be an overview of why we need these skills.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Discuss the importance of developing effective interpersonal skills in order to be an effective mental health worker.
  • Discuss the application of the skills learned in this course to the field of mental health.

Teaching

Why learn about Interviewing and Counseling?

As you make your way through the lesson plans in this course you will find that it is geared toward teaching you about the process of psychotherapy, which you will NOT be doing in your work! We teach this course in this manner because these skills are not only important in the process of psychotherapy but also in all of our interactions with others.

What is psychotherapy? Psychotherapy, or "talk therapy", is a way to treat people with a mental disorder by helping them understand their illness. It teaches people strategies and gives them tools to deal with stress and unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. Psychotherapy helps patients manage their symptoms better and function at their best in everyday life. Sometimes psychotherapy alone may be the best treatment for a person, depending on the illness and its severity. Other times, psychotherapy is combined with medications. Therapists work with an individual or families to devise an appropriate treatment plan (from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/psychotherapies/index.shtml). An individual who considers him/herself a therapist may have a variety of different types of training. The person could have an education in psychology, individual counseling, marriage and family counseling, substance abuse counseling, pastor counseling (spirituality/religion), social work, art therapy, equine therapy (with horses), music therapy.... I think you get the idea. Just because the word therapist is used it is important to understand the training and education of the person using that term.

As mental health professionals we have the tools to not only enhance our relationships with our clients, but to enhance our relationships with everyone in our lives!

Why are interviewing and counseling skills important for an individual working as an MHRT/C? Some of the roles for MHRT/C’s in Maine include these titles:

  • Community Integration/Case Management
  • Skills Development
  • Residential Support Staff
  • Day Support Services
  • Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Behavioral Health Support Staff
  • Clubhouse Staff Members

In each of these roles you will be working one on one with individuals in their homes and communities. MHRT/C’s regularly interact with clients, family members, friends of clients, and other service providers. Your ability to interact professionally with all of these individuals will be very important for your success in any of these roles. You will need to have the skills to know how to ask questions to gain relevant information, how to direct conversations to remain on task, how to assess for safety and sometimes how to de-escalate volatile situations.

This course will provide you with some basic interviewing and counseling skills to enable you to complete future assignments such as collecting assessment information, determining an individual’s level of risk (crisis assessment), conducting treatment planning, documenting interactions and communicating with others who are also involved in your clients’ lives. It is always important to remember that every client you interact with is a person in his or her environment. Meaning the environment a person is from can affect how that person interacts with others.

Motivational Interviewing

In this course we are going to be learning about a model of interaction known as "Motivational Interviewing"

We will discuss the intricacies of this model in a future lesson but for now we can refer to the CCNC Motivational Interviewing (MI) Resource Guide for a basic explanation.

Read pages 1-6 of this Guide. Take note of the following topics:

"Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language go change. I tis designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the persons' own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion." - Miller and Rollnick (2012)

  • The "Spirit" of Motivational Interviewing
    • Partnership
    • Acceptance / Autonomy / Absolute Worth
    • Compassion
    • Evocation
  • Key Principles
    • Express Empathy
      • Listening to the client without being judgmental, critical, or blaming. In the early stages a person may not be yet willing to give up their behaviors.
    • Develop Discrepancy
      • Helping clients see a difference between what they are doing now and what they want to be in the future.
    • Roll with Resistance
      • Resistance will happen. The key approach in MI is to "roll" with the resistance. Reflecting back to the client the emotions that you sense and using the resistance to further explore their commitment to change.
    • Support Self-Efficacy
      • Self-efficacy is the perception we have of our ability to do or accomplish something. We work to build our clients' confidence in their ability to bring about change...this ability can then be used to bring about other changes as well.

Consider how the "Spirit" and "Key Principles" that you have just read about match your own personal ways of communicating. How useful, based on your current understanding, are these skills in working with people with mental illness?

Assessment

Lesson 1 Discussion

Having excellent interpersonal skills is key to being a successful mental health worker. Be honest, how good are your conversational skills? Are you sometimes shy or introverted? Do you have trouble talking about specific topics?

How do you see the principles of Motivational Interviewing and the learning you will experience in this class impacting your work as a mental health worker?

For full credit in the graded discussions you need to post at least ONE response to the prompt in the Lesson and reply to at least TWO other students' posts. Your reply posts must be substantive. Please see the grading rubric in the Syllabus for this course for more details.

These instructions apply to all the graded discussions in this course and will not be repeated.