Communication & Interviewing Lecture PDF

Interviews Dr Emma Campbell  Interviews A specialised form of communication and is goal directed or purposeful interaction in the pursuit of a specific outcome. There are different types of interviews including surveys, medical, journalistic, supervisory, investigative and counse...

Interviews Dr Emma Campbell  Interviews A specialised form of communication and is goal directed or purposeful interaction in the pursuit of a specific outcome. There are different types of interviews including surveys, medical, journalistic, supervisory, investigative and counselling/ therapeutic interviews. It is very important to note that a person’s culture, gender, religion and class will impact on their help-seeking behaviour and how they respond in the professional interview and relationship.  Interviews Not a normal Must prepare conversation PURPOSE of the What is the interview will PURPOSE guide direction Be mindful of 4 phases to an cultural aspects interview  Interviews  There are four phases to any interview 1) the preliminary phase, 2) the beginning phase, 3) the work phase and 4) the ending or termination phase.  There are various skills used in an interview  a skill refers to a message that the worker sends to the client with the intention that it will benefit the client in terms of the client’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour.  The appropriateness of the skill will often depend on which phase of the interview it is being used in.  Interviews Preliminary Beginning Working Termination phase phase phase phase  1. The Preliminary Phase Venue, length of Begins before session, the interview language, starts number of sessions, tissues Individual Purpose session or family session  1. The Preliminary Phase Prepare for TUNING IN what client may FEEL How are YOU Empathy feeling  Tuning In  This is an essential part of the preliminary stage.  The worker prepares for what the client may feel in the interview.  The worker already thus has empathy for the client.  Tuning in involves the worker’s effort to get in touch with feelings and concerns the client may bring to the encounter.  The worker also tunes into herself.  The purpose of tuning in is for the worker to become a more sensitive receiver of the client’s indirect communications in the first sessions.  This is important because often the most important client communications are not spoken directly.  Tuning in allows the worker to hear the client’s indirect cues and to respond directly.  Interviews Preliminary Beginning Working Termination phase phase phase phase  2. The Beginning Phase The session starts! Client is the expert of their life Contracting Looks at purpose, goals, length, confidentiality, no. of sessions Why does client want to see you? Skill: settling in to make client feel relaxed (Use SOLER) Skill: Listening, active listening, clarifying, paraphrasing, reflection, summarising, listening to yourself  Settling In  This is where you meet and greet the client.  You relax the client with your tone of voice, nonverbal expressions and the seating arrangements.  You ask yourself what can the client be feeling and you are aware of how the client may behave eg. The client may seem quite passive, not be very focussed and may appear overwhelmed.  It is also important to note if the client is self-referred, a voluntary or involuntary client because this will impact on how they behave.  There are certain guidelines for visibly tuning into clients. You can use the acronym: SOLER  SOLER S= Face the client SQUARELY which indicates you are involved in the conversation. Turning your body away from the person lessens your contact with the person. O= Adopt an OPEN POSTURE. Crossed arms and legs can make it seem as if you are unavailable and uninvolved in the interview. L= At times you can LEAN towards the client a bit. Leaning far back can make it seem as if you are bored and leaning too far forward can be threatening. E= Maintain good EYE CONTACT. Avoid staring though. Be aware of cultural issues around eye contact. R= Try to be RELAXED so be aware of fidgeting, facial expressions and your non-verbal communication.  Listening Skills  Essential skill in this phase  There is a difference between hearing and listening  In an interview there has to be a balance between listening and responding.  A good listener is a good speaker.  Because the listener is outwardly quiet we see the listener as passive however this is not so.  Active Listening  Active listening is an important skill because it allows you to respond and communicate your understanding of what the client has said which shows the client that you have correctly understood their communication.  It involves attending to what clients are saying verbally and non-verbally and you observe the client at 4 levels i.e  Energy levels  Health  Appearance  Degree of congruence  Active Listening  Active listening allows you to feel what the client is going through whilst at the same time you are thinking of how to respond to and communicate with the client  It is also important to give feedback to the client our understanding of what they have said to us ie. After active listening you have to respond to the client.  Active listening skills include using encouragers, clarifying, paraphrasing, reflection, summarising and exploring silences  Listening to Ourselves  The interviewer also has an internal conversation with themself while they are listening to the client & in order to be an effective interviewer you need to listen to both yourself and the client.  You shouldn’t become distracted but your own internal dialogue will help you decide on how to help the client further.  This ‘second channel’ can give messages about the worker, the client or the relationship.  Interviews Preliminary Beginning Working Termination phase phase phase phase  In this phase probing and exploring become essential.  We prompt and probe so that the interviewee can talk more about 3. Working themselves, their feelings and their Phase behaviour.  Probing or exploring can take the form of statements, questions or interjections.  It is important that we do not ask too many questions. The interview is not an interrogation  There must be a mix between empathy and probing and asking 3. Working ‘why’ is not helpful-  All questions must serve a purpose, Phase we don’t just ask questions for the sake of it.  There is a combination of open and closed questions and social workers ask a range of questions.  Closed questions limit how the client can respond whereas  Open questions allow some freedom in how the client can respond.  Closed questions are more suitable when you want specific information 3. Working and ended in counselling questions sessions are open more Phase appropriate.  Narrowing the focus or funnelling refers to a series of questions that help the interviewee to describe their situation in more detail  The focus must be kept on the client  Interviews Preliminary Beginning Working Termination phase phase phase phase  4. Termination & Evaluation Phase  Every interview or helping relationship must come to an end  It is important that the client be prepared for termination (especially children) so that they do not feel abandoned.  The client may regress to initial stages  Termination may be very difficult because the client may have become attached to you.  You need to look at follow-up ie. What happens next.  4. Termination & Evaluation Phase  It is important that you terminate every interview as if it is the last interview and also ultimately the process must be terminated.  Clients may at times raise an issue in the last few minutes of the interview.  This is known as a door-knob communication and there are several reasons for this.  Giving a time warning is a useful way of avoiding this.  Ongoing Evaluation At the end of each session we need to look at how we are doing in terms of achieving our purpose We look at have we achieved our goals for the interview and if not why not?  Consolidation of gains and future planning  It is imperative that you look at the gains and lessons learnt which can be transferred into the client’s life generally.  You need to look at maintenance strategies and relapse prevention.  You may need to assist with referrals and also help the client to access their support systems  You need to be open to feedback from clients because this is a key aspect to your professional development.  Ultimately we disengage and separate   Summarising  Reflecting Skills in this phase  Integration  Planning THANK YOU