Chapter 7 Eliminating Counterproductive Communication Patterns and Substituting Positive Alternatives PDF

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Notes from chapter 7 of the Direct Social Work Practice textbook on eliminating counterproductive communication patterns and substituting positive alternatives for Professor Haranis's class....

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Chapter 7: Eliminating Counterproductive Communication Patterns and Substituting Positive Alternatives ● Impacts of counterproductive communication patterns ● Identifying and improving nonverbal barriers to effective communication ○ Nonverbal behaviors: influence interactions between people, and SWs’ nonverbal interview behavior contributes significantly to ratings of their effectiveness ■ Nonverbal cues serve to confirm/deny messages conveyed verbally ■ May be beyond the conscious awareness of participants ○ Physical attending: basic skill critical to the helping process - communicated by receptive behaviors such as facing the client squarely, leaning forward, maintaining eye contact, and remaining relaxed ○ Cultural nuances of nonverbal cues ■ SW must be aware that some members of different cultural groups ascribe different meanings to certain nonverbal behaviors ■ SW should consider possibility of differences in cultural assumptions about helping professionals as authorities who can solve problems by providing advice ○ Other nonverbal behaviors ■ Barriers that prevent the SW from staying in psychological contact with the client can be caused by preoccupation with peripheral curiosities or evaluations about the client or by inner pressures to find immediate solutions to the client’s problems ■ Clients need to perceive that the SW is concerned about their situation ○ Taking inventory of nonverbal patterns of responding ■ Recommended facial expressions: direct eye contact, warmth and concern reflected in facial expression, eyes at same level, mouth relaxed/occasional smiles ● Not recommended: staring or fixating, yawning, nodding head excessively, frozen/rigid expression ■ Recommended posture: arms/hands moderately expressive, appropriate gestures, body leaning slightly forward, attentive but relaxed ● Not recommended: rigid body position, fidgeting with hands, squirming or rocking in chair, pointing finger for emphasis ■ Recommended voice: clearly audible but not loud, warmth in tone of voice, moderate speech tempo ● Not recommended: mumbling, monotonic voice, halting speech, prolonged silence, nervous laughter ■ Recommended physical proximity: 3-5 feet between chairs ● Not recommended: excessive closeness or distance, talking across desk or other barrier ● Eliminating verbal barriers to communication ○ Reactance theory: suggests that clients will act to protect valued freedoms ■ Can include the freedom to have one’s own opinions and the inclination to action

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Verbal barriers usually have immediate negative effect on communications, stop clients from revealing information and working on problems ■ 1. Reassuring, sympathizing, consoling, or excusing ■ 2. Advising and giving suggestions or solutions prematurely ■ 3. Using sarcasm or employing humor that is distracting or makes light of clients’ problems ■ 4. Judging, criticizing, or placing blame ■ 5. Trying to convince the client about the right point of view through logical arguments, lecturing, instructing, or arguing ■ 6. Analyzing, diagnosing, or making glib or dogmatic interpretations ■ 7. Threatening, warning, or counterattacking Reassuring, sympathizing, consoling, or excusing ■ Well-timed reassurance can engender much needed hope/support ■ But glibly reassuring clients that “things will work out” is a way of avoiding exploring clients’ feelings of despair, anger, hopelessness, helplessness ● SW must undertake to explore those distressing feelings and to assist clients in acknowledging painful realities rather than glossing over clients’ feelings Advising and giving suggestions of solutions prematurely ■ Appropriately-timed advice can be an important helping tool, but untimely advice may elicit opposition ■ Recommended solutions often do not address their real needs Using sarcasm or employing humor inappropriately ■ Humor can be helpful, but excessive or untimely use of humor can be distracting, keeping the content or the session on a superficial level Judging, criticizing, or placing blame ■ Clients do not feel supported when they perceive the SW as critical, moralistic, and defensive rather than warm and respectful Trying to convince clients about the right point of view through logic, lecturing, instructing, or arguing ■ Attempting to convince clients often provokes a kind of boomerang effect ■ Clients are not only unconvinced of the merits of the SW’s argument, but may also be more inclined to hold onto their beliefs than before Analyzing, diagnosing, or making glib or dogmatic interpretations ■ When used sparingly and timed appropriately, interpretation of the dynamics of behavior can be a potent change-oriented skill ■ Even accurate interpretations that focus on purposes/meanings of behavior substantially beyond clients’ levels of conscious awareness tend to inspire client opposition and are doomed to failure Threatening, warning, or counterattacking ■ Sometimes clients consider actions that would endanger themselves or others or are illegal ● Alerting clients to the potential consequences of those actions is an ethical/appropriate intervention

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But making threats often produces an oppositional behavior that exacerbates the situation Stacking questions and using double-barreled questions ■ Stacking questions: asking multiple questions at the same time, which diffuses the focus and confuses clients Asking leading questions ■ Leading questions: have hidden agendas designed to induce clients to agree with a particular view or to adopt a solution that SWs deem to be in clients’ best interests Interrupting inappropriately or excessively ■ To maintain focus on relevant problem areas, SWs must sometimes interrupt clients ■ Interruptions must be purposeful, well timed, and smoothly executed otherwise they may damage the helping process Dominating the interaction ■ SWs should guide discussions, not dominate the interaction by talking too much or asking too many closed-ended questions Keeping discussions focused on safe topics ■ Social chitchat tends to foster a social rather than therapeutic relationship ■ Helpful, growth-producing relationships feature sharp focus and high specificity Responding infrequently ■ Ethical responsibility to utilize fully the limited contact time with client ■ Inactive SWs are likely to ignore fruitful moments that could be explored to promote clients’ growth ■ Must structure helping process by developing contracts with clients that specify respective responsibilities of both sets of participants Parroting or overusing certain phrases or cliches ■ Rather than repeating clients’ words, SWs should use fresh language that captures the essence of clients’ messages and places them in sharper perspective ■ SWs should refrain from punctuating communications with superfluous phrases (“you know,” “..., okay?,” “...and stuff” Dwelling on the remote past ■ SWs’ verbal responses may focus on the past, present, or future ■ Focusing on the present is vital because clients can only change their present circumstances, behaviors, and feelings Going on fishing expeditions (tangential exploration) ■ Pursuing content that is only tangentially related to client concerns may be puzzling to clients Failing to be aware of cognitive bias ■ Cognitive bias: seeking out information that confirms our understanding, preferences, or perceptions while ignoring information that contradicts these biases

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May have both positive and negative influences on client interactions Gauging the effectiveness of your responses ○ Monitor your interviewing style for idiosyncratic counterproductive patterns of responding ○ Keep in mind that a response is probably helpful if clients react in these ways: ■ They continue to explore the problem or stay on the topic ■ They express pent-up emotions related to the problematic situation ■ They engage in deeper self-exploration and self-experiencing ■ They volunteer more personally relevant material spontaneously ■ They affirm the validity of your response either verbally or nonverbally ○ A response may be too confrontational, poorly timed, or off target if clients respond in these ways: ■ They reject your response either verbally or nonverbally ■ They change the subject ■ They ignore the message ■ They appear mixed up or confused ■ They become more superficial, more impersonal, more emotionally detached, or more defensive ■ They argue or express anger rather than examine the relevance of the feelings involved The challenge of learning new skills ○ establishing/maintaining a therapeutic relationship requires highly disciplined efforts on the SW’s part ○ SW must sharply focus on the needs/problems of his/her clients ○ Success of each transaction is measured in terms of SW’s adroitness in consciously applying specific skills to move process toward therapeutic objectives...