Social Work Counseling

Dr. Ines V. Danao,RSW,MSSW

• A. Social Work focus
• Counseling – time-limited relationship in
which worker helps clients increase their
ability to deal with demands of life. (Choices
by Bob Shebib,2003)
Human Behavior and Social Environment
FOCUSED
FOCUSED ON
ON
Man
Man Society
Society
Social,
Social, cultural,
cultural, political
political and
and
Biopsychosocial
Biopsychosocial && economic forces
Spiritual economic forces
Spiritual Being
Being
Continuous Condition
Condition of
of equilibrium
equilibrium between
Continuous desire
desire to
to needs
between
live productive,
live productive, needs and
and demands
demands imposed
imposed
satisfying upon him by social environment.
satisfying life
life upon him by social environment.
MUST
MUST BE
BE ESTABLISHED
ESTABLISHED

Inability Personal
Personal Inadequacies
Inability to
to satisfy
satisfy Inadequacies
needs
needs because of:
because of: harsh
harshand
anddifficult
difficultsocial
social
environment
environment
Inability
Inability to
to cope
cope with
with
problems of living
problems of living

Impairment
Impairment of
of social
social
functioning
functioning
 Counseling

• Immediate goal – clients gain some control

over their problems
• Focus on 3 Variables:
– needs and wants of clients,
– mandate of counseling setting, and
– expertise or competence of worker
 Interviewing Skills
• Goal of Interview – acquire and organize
relevant information through timely listening
and responding skills
• Distinguishes social work counseling from
other professionals: dual focus on working
with individuals as well as environment
• Specht – build better system and communities
that are structured to provide social support
and helping network to clientele.
 Interviewing Skills
• Attending – show interest
• Paraphrasing – shortened restatement to
clarify essence
• Summarizing- condense essential content and
identify essential themes
• Empathy-understand emotional perspective &
communicate this understanding
• Questioning – probe for information to
confirm understanding
 4 Major Counseling Skills Clusters
• 1. Relationship Building – active
listening,promoting core conditions, and
defining relationship
• 2. Exploring or Probing- Active listening;
directives,encouragers,self-disclosure,use of
humor
• 3. Empowering-Searching for strengths,teaching,
information-giving, supporting
• 4. Challenging-confronting, action planning
 4 Phases of Counselling (Shebib)

• 1. Preliminary-prepare for interview, self-

awareness
• 2. Beginning-establish working relationship
• 3. Action- goal setting, action planning,revising
contract, evaluation
• 4. Ending- ending
relationship,referral,evaluation
 Social Workers with Self Awareness
• Identify & label personal feelings
• Accept areas of vulnerability & unresolved
issues
• Recognize & manage internal dialogue
• Modify behaviour based on reactions of
clients
 Common Core Principles of
Code of Ethics

• Put needs of clients first

• Strictly prohibit sexual and
exploitive relationships
Social Values Rooted in Basic Principles

• Belief in dignity & worth of people

• Respect for diversity
• Respect for client’s self-determination
 Ethical dilemma – choice must be made
between competing values
• 5 Principles in Resolving Ethical Dilemma
– Autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice
and fidelity
Objectivity – capacity to understand situations and
people without bias or distortion; may lose
objectivity by making assumptions overidentifying
with clients and becoming overly involved
3 Core Conditions/Prerequisite Attitudes to Forming &
Maintaining Effective Helping Relationships

• Truax & Carkhuff building on Carl Rogers

• 1. Warmth –non possessive caring, precursor to
trust, genuine feelings of caring;
• 2. Empathy – capacity to understand the
feelings and views of another person;
communicate understanding and acceptance
• 3. Genuineness – consistency between thinking
and feeling; not contradictory messages
 Contract- negotiated agreement between
social worker & client
• Essential Elements of the contract
– Objective of counseling relationship
– Roles and expectations of worker & clients (how
address conflict and give feedback)
– Methods and routines of counseling (describe
work of counselor)
– Practical details (time and place of meeting, fees,
ethical issues)
 Immediacy – tool for exploring, evaluating
and deepening relationship
• Goal – strengthen counseling relationship
• 2 Major Types of Immediacy (Egan)
– Relationship - process of evaluating general
working climate of counselor-client relationship
– Here-and-Now – focuses on interactions as they
occur within the interview; deals with relationship
issues such as tension, lack of trust, and lack of
direction in the session
 Listening-process of receiving, attending to &
assigning meaning to aural and visual stimuli
• Overcome listening obstacles – be patient,
encourage trust, control noise, stay focused,
control assumptions
• Active listening – attention to word choice,
voice tone, posture, verbal hesitation,
conflicting messages, shifts in topic
Silence in counseling – 6 Common Meanings
to Silence
• 1. Client is thinking – give time to formulate
thoughts and feelings
• 2. Client is confused and unsure of what to say
• 3. Client is encountering painful feelings
• 4. Client is dealing with issues of trust
• 5. Silence is the client’s usual way
• 6. The client has reached closure
 Paraphrasing – not same as repetition

• Interchangeable with client’s ideas

• Stating thoughts from different angle
• Helps organize disjointed thoughts
• Less forceful and directive that direct
questioning technique
• Not add or alter meaning of client’s statement
 LIVE: 4 Essential Steps of Summarizing –
listen, identify, verbalize, evaluate
• Listen-pay attention to who, what, when,
where,why, how
• Identify – underlying themes & patterns,
priorities
• Verbalize – words client can understand (let’s
summarize, recap
• Evaluate- watch and listen for signs that
summary is correct
 Questioning – engage clients in higher-order
thinking, kindle curiosity, consider new possibilities

• Errors in asking Questions

– Leading questions
– Excessive questioning
– Multiple questions
– Irrelevant and poorly timed questions
 Interview Transitions – topic of conversation
shifts from one subject to another
• Natural – discussion flows seamlessly, with
clear links between two topics
• Strategic – when worker makes the choice
among topic alternatives
• Control – to manage the direction of the
interview; when topic is irrelevant
• Phase – time to move to next phase
Motivation in Counseling – extent to which clients are
willing to involve themselves in the change process

• Motivational problems
– Clients in denial
– Involuntary clients
– Burnt out clients
– Ambivalent clients
– Energized clients – actively seeking change
 4 Steps of Action Planning
• 1. Identify Alternatives for action
• 2. Choose action strategy(effective, sufficient
to make difference & relevant;within capacity
of client,consistent with client’s values &
potential cost)
• 3. Develop and implement plans
• 4. Evaluate outcomes