Chapter 13
SKILL INTEGRATION THROUGH
EXAMINING YOUR OWN SESSION,
TREATMENT PLANS, AND CASE
MANAGEMENT
How can your skill integration help you and your clients?
Chapter 13, Skill Integration Through Examining Your Own Session, Treatment Plans, and Case
Management, provides the opportunity for you to examine your interviewing style through a
detailed analysis of a recorded interview. You can compare your interview with those earlier in
CHAPTER GOALS
Awareness, knowledge, skills, and actions developed through the concepts of this chapter
will enable you to:
▲ If you chose, you may wish to use the detailed interview evaluation form available at the
conclusion of this chapter as part of this analysis.
▲ Develop a plan for the first interview, keep systematic interview records, and develop long-
term treatment plans.
▲ Examine case management as related to the treatment plan.
▲ Use relapse prevention as a systematic model to facilitate transfer of learning from the
interview to the real world.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is oriented to bringing together the diverse material of the text into an integrated
whole and, hopefully, to prepare students for the presentation of their own interviewing style.
Our entire effort at this point focuses on students mastering the skills in their own way and
communicating their style in a long paper with a transcript.
OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER AND MINDTAP SUPPORT
DEFINING SKILL INTEGRATION
This chapter begins with a presentation of a definition of skill integration and an explanation of
what students can anticipate when they integrate their skills into a well-formed interview. Also
important is their competence in analyzing their sessions. Specifics for this analysis will be found
further in the chapter, where specifics for recording a session with a volunteer client are
It may be helpful to visit the instructor companion website and view a full interview transcript of
Allen and Mary in a decisional interview. This will help students see decisional counseling in
action. Additionally, it offers another way to analyze the interview in even more detail than
discussed here.
List of MindTap resources available for this section:
2. Weblink: Interviewing and Data-Gathering Techniques—University of Missouri, St. Louis,
College of Business Administration.
DISCERNING SUGGESTIONS TO FACILITATE SKILL INTEGRATION
There are many issues to be considered before, during, and after we work with clients. We
suggest the use of a checklist as a way to guide the interview. Box 13.1 provides a checklist for
An interesting class discussion involves asking students what would they add or delete from this
checklist. Making the checklist fit for their work and their agency is essential.
REFINING: SUPPLEMENTARY CONCEPTS AND METHODS
Case management is reviewed here. Also introduced here is Krumbolz’s “happenstance theory.”
We are not always the masters of fate. Chance is as a major determinant of who we are and where
we are heading. The results of chance or happenstance affect our goals and decisions. Help
students think of various decision and chance points that might have led them to this moment in
their life.
PRACTICING: TOPICS IMPORTANT TO INTERVIEWING PRACTICE AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REVIEWING YOUR OWN INTERVIEWING STYLE
Referral issues and relapse prevention plan are discussed. When referral is necessary, provide
sufficient support during the transfer process. Relapse prevention and the relapse plan are
YOUR TURN: THE FINAL AUDIO OR VIDEO EXERCISE
Table 13.4 presents the guidelines for reviewing and analyzing the interview. Box 13.5 presents a
List of MindTap resources available for this section:
1. Interactive Exercise: A Full Interview Transcript. Prepare a paper in which you demonstrate
2. Group Practice Exercise: Your Turn: An Important Audio or Video Exercise.
DEMONSTRATIONS AND VIDEOS
Obviously, students cannot complete a full interview inside the classroom. Our experience is that
• Any video of a complete counseling session, but it needs to be stopped time to time to
analyze skill usage and whether or not specific stages of the session are demonstrated.
• We have occasionally done a full live interview in front of the class. This adds
immediacy to the class.
CLASS PROCEDURES
1. Prepare the students for their own transcript and self-analysis. The emphasis in this chapter
is on each trainee developing a tape and transcript of her or his own interviewing style. The
plan for an individual case analysis presentation may be found in the text. Students, however,
seem to need more detailed instructions for developing their tapes, and the handout later in
this section may be helpful in clarifying what they are to do.
Portions of the transcript of this chapter may be read aloud and studied in detail.
Alternatively, a transcript of some other interview may be handled in the same fashion. Films
or videotapes or interviews may be presented and analyzed, looking for the same structure
REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSCRIPT
1. Present the paper typed in a similar format to that of the text. You may find that this
2. Chapter 13 presents the specifics of the paper in detail. Check off the following
points to make sure you have included all the necessary information in the transcript.
In addition (or as an alternative), it is possible you can use the Microskills Interview
Analysis Form (MIAF), asking a colleague to review your transcript and provide the
form as another summary of your work.
_______ Describe the client briefly. Do not use the client’s real name.
_______ Outline your session plan before the session begins.
_______ Be sure you obtain the client’s permission before recording the session,
_______ Organize the transcript in a format similar to the two-column transcripts
used in this book.
_______ Number all interactions, and be sure to indicate who is speaking at the
beginning of each interaction.
_______ Please note the focus of each interview and client comment and the skill
classification. Periodically, use the Client Change Scale to look at possible
feel that you must cover all stages; in some cases, you may cycle back to
an earlier stage or forward to a later stage.
_______ At the end, write a commentary that summarizes what happened.
_______ Summarize your use of skills through a skill count. What skills do you
seem to use most?
_______ Assess your competence levels. What skills have you mastered, and what
do you need to do next? This is also a summary of your strengths and the
areas that need further development. What did you like and not like about
your work? Your ability to understand and process “where you are” and
3. You don’t have to present a full interview in typed form, although this likely will be
4. Have you done everything on the checklist?
5. Good luck! This is a taxing, demanding assignment. However, the feedback we
obtain from students year after year is that this assignment was one of the most
6. Suggested topics for the session: career counseling, assertion training, an interview on