Stages and Skills of

Counseling
Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Rapport and Relationship
• Psychological climate resulting from
the interpersonal contact of client and
counselor.
• Living and evolving condition.
• Relationship includes respect, trust,
and relative psychological comfort.

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Rapport and Relationship
Impacted by
• Counselor’s personal and professional
qualifications.
• Client’s – interpersonal history,
– anxiety state,
– interrelation skills, and
– previous ability to share,
Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.
Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Clinical Assessment
Involves specific skills
• Observation
• Inquiry
• Associating facts
• Recording information
• Forming hypotheses (clinical
“hunches”)
Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.
 Observation
1. Take notice of the client’s general state
of anxiety.
2. Establish sense of client’s cultural
context.
3. Note gestures / movements that denote
emotional / physical dysfunctions.

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Observation

4. Hear how the client frames his / her

problems.
5. Note verbal and non-verbal patterns.

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

Humans Share Basic Needs

1. Survival
2. Physical needs
3. Love and sex
4. Status, success, and self-esteem

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Humans Share Basic Needs
5. Mental health
6. Freedom
7. Challenge
8. Cognitive Clarity

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Formal Diagnostic Assessment
Interview format:
• Focus
• Basic Screening Questions
• Detailed Inquiry

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Presenting problem and context

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• What concerns • Clarify stressors
brought you here?
• Elicit
• Why now? - coping skills,
• Has this happened - social support,
before? - and resources
• How is it impacting • Clarify life function
your daily life? - work
- family
- health
- intimacy
Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.
Focus
Mental status

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• How do you feel now? • Note
• How is your mood - age & mannerisms
affected? - dress & grooming
- orientation . . . .
• Had any unusual
experiences? • Probe
- anxiety symptoms
• How is your memory? - form, content,
• Do you think that life thought.
isn’t worth living? - suicidal ideation
- violent impulses . . . .

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Developmental history and dynamics

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• How would you • Clarify
describe yourself as a - current self-view
person? - level of self-esteem
• Shift to the past, how - personality style
were things when you • Note
were growing up? - developmental
milestones
- experience in school
- best friends
- educational level

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Social history and cultural dynamics

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• What is your current • Elicit
living situation? - job or military
• What is your ethnic - legal problems
background? - social support system
- race, age, gender
- sexual orientation
- religion
- language
- dietary influences
- education

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Health history and behaviors

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• Tell me about your • Identify
health? - prescriptions
• Health habits? - substance usage
- health status
- health habits

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Client resources

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• How have you tried to • Probe
make things better? - Efforts to change
Results? - Efforts vs. successes
• How do you explain • Clarify client
you’re symptoms? explanatory model
• What is your / my role • Identify treatment
in your treatment? expectations
• When will things • Specify readiness for
change / get better? change

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Focus
Wind down and close

Basic Questions Detailed Inquiry

• What else would be • Use an open-ended
important for me to query
know?
- Allows the client to
• Do you have any
questions for me? add information.
- Creates sense of
reciprocal and
collaborative
relationship.

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, Table 4.3, pp. 67-68.

Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Conceptualizing Problems

• Recognize a client need.

• Understand that need.
• Meet that need.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Conceptualizing Problems

1. Beliefs may
• Contribute to the problem.
• Impede the solution.
• Become the problem.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Conceptualizing Problems
2. Feelings / responses often
• Exaggerate the problem..
• Impede comprehension of the
problem.
• Become the problem.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Conceptualizing Problems

3. Behavior / responses may

• Be inappropriate.
• Contribute to the problem.
• Complicate the problem.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Conceptualizing Problems

4. Interaction patterns include

• Miscommunication channels,
• Expectations,
• Self-fulfilling prophesies,
• Coping styles.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Conceptualizing Problems

5. Contextual factors
• Time
• Place
• Concurrent events
• Cultural and socio-political issues

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Goal Setting
• Indicates how well counseling is
working.
• Indicates when counseling should be
concluded.
• Prevents dependent relationships.
• Determines the selection of
interventions.
Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.
 Goal Setting
Mutually defined by the client and counselor.

Counselor Client
• Greater objectivity • Experience with the
• Training in problem
– Normal and • History of the problem
– Abnormal behavior • Potential insights
• Process experience • Awareness of personal
investment in change
Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.
 Process Goals
• Related to establishing therapeutic
conditions for client change.
• Includes:
– Establishing rapport,
– Providing a non-threatening setting, and
– Possessing and communicating accurate
empathy and unconditional regard.

Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.

 Outcome Goals
• Are different for each client and
directly related to clients’ changes.
• Always subject to modification and
refinement.
• To begin, formulate tentative outcome
goals.
• Modify goals as needed to support
effective change.
Cormier & Hackney, 1999, pp. 120-133.
Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Interventions
• Objective -- initiate and facilitate client
change.
• After assessment and goals setting,
answers the question, “How shall we
accomplish these goal?”
• Must be related to the problem.

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Interventions
• Selecting an intervention may become
an adaptive process.
• Skills to initiate include
1. Competency with the intervention;
2. Knowledge of appropriate uses;
3. Knowledge of typical client responses;
4. Observation skills to note client
responses.
Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.
Counseling Process Structure
1. Rapport and Relationship Building
2. Assessment / Problem Definition
3. Goal-setting
4. Initiating Interventions
5. Termination

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Termination
• No clear cut ending, but no need to
continue beyond usefulness.
• Awareness by the counselor and the
client that the work is accomplished.
• May take the same number of
sessions as rapport building.

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, pp. 176-179.

 Types of Termination
1. Suggested termination, with client
agreement
2. Imposed termination
• Continuing is against client best interest
• Client is deteriorating, not progressing
• Incompatibility with the therapist
• Client using therapy in place of life

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Types of Termination
3. Situational termination
• Client moves
• Employment or insurance changes
4. Early termination, clients just don’t
return.

Hackney & Cormier, 2001, pp. 23-42.

 Methods & Process
• Gradual tapering off of sessions.
• Therapeutic vacations, taking a
break without breaking the
connection.
• Direct (imposed) termination.

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, pp. 176-179.

 Methods & Process
Therapist must carefully consider the most effective
way to terminate each client.

1. How will termination impact the client?

2. What is the client’s history of separation? Is
the client likely to regress?
3. What is the client’s reaction / opinion about
termination? Can he / she see it as a
positive step?

Sperry, Carlson, & Kjos, 2003, pp. 176-179.

 References
• Cormier, Sherry & Harold Hackney. Counseling
Strategies and Interventions, 5th Edition. Allyn
& Bacon, 1999.
• Hackney, Harold L. & L. Sherilyn Cormier. The
Professional Counselor: A Process Guide to
Helping, 4th Edition. Allyn & Bacon, 2001.
• Sperry, Len, John Carlson, & Diane Kjos.
Becoming An Effective Therapist. Allyn &
Bacon, 2003.