Professionalism and Emotional Reflection

Professionalism and Questions

• Content focuses on who, what, when, where, how
• Feelings refer to the person's emotional state
• Feelings can vary in intensity
• Feelings might introduce temporality to a situation, e.g., "At this time..." or "in this moment..."
• Sometimes people say "I feel" but it's not a feeling; identify the emotion word instead
• Use first person reflecting (talking from the client's perspective)
• Questions should be purposeful to challenge family presentations and lead to different perspectives

Reflection of Feelings

• Keep the focus on the client and avoid judgment
• Straightforward Reflections: Identify the feeling without context
• Combination Reflections: Connect the feeling to content
• Metaphors: Use metaphors to represent feelings

Reflection of Meaning

• Meaning represents how the client understands themselves
• How does the client make sense of their current situation?
• How does it integrate into their sense of self?

Mutualization

• Mutualization: When a therapist brings together perspectives with a shared understanding
• Why is this important in family therapy?
• Multipartiality versus neutrality: Therapists consider multiple perspectives, or neutrality

Pitfalls in Therapy

• Fixer: Avoid fixing clients
• Too eager/reactive: Do not become too drawn in or reactive
• Beginning therapists have a tendency to move away from conflict
• Therapists should be purposeful with their questions to challenge the family's presentation and encourage diversity of perspectives

"Good" and "Problematic" Questions

• Good Questions:
• Open questions allow for multiple answers (What, How, When, Why)
• Closed questions ask for specific, limited answers (Did, Do, Are, Is)
• Swing questions are closed-form but open-ended (Would, Will, Could, Can)
• Relational/Interactional questions focus on interactions between individuals
• Questions as interventions
• Conversational questions clarify and expand the story
• Problematic Questions:
• Double-barreled questions combined two questions
• Long questions are too lengthy
• Guessing questions contain potential answers
• Specific questions are too precise
• Leading questions suggest an answer

Takeaways and Discussion Points

• Questions should not be fillers, rather, connect with theory
• Mutualize with clients
• Focus on asking purposeful questions
• Building relationships with family systems
• Nuance in asking questions and maintaining relationships
• Questions should be collaborative for better outcomes

Vocalics and Use of Self & Intensity

• Vocalics (paralanguage) focuses on tone (pitch, pacing, volume) and use of humor to evoke change
• Therapist behaviors that could impact intensity (immediacy, intensity)
• Therapist reaction to client
• The intent is to help the relationships
• The therapist should help clients be reflective

Termination Considerations

• Clients initiating termination: Client stops coming or does not want to work with the therapist.
• Therapist-initiated termination: Meets goals, outside the scope of practice, leaving/transfer.
• Client dependency: Feeling they cannot function without the therapist's support.

Therapies

• Theories of family system therapy and the role of the therapist
• Brief therapy (Mental Research Institute Group), Strategic family therapy, and others, as well as their main ideas.

Key Interventions

• Techniques such as sculpting, self-mandala, resource wheel, use of touch, and genuine warmth

Goal Setting Considerations

• Setting SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
• Prioritizing goals in therapy when there are multiple concerns.