Counseling Chapter 8 Focusing The Interview Exploring The Story From Multiple Perspectives How Can

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Chapter 8

FOCUSING THE INTERVIEW:

EXPLORING THE STORY FROM MULTIPLE

PERSPECTIVES

How can the skill of focusing help you and your clients?

Chapter 8, “Focusing the Interview: Exploring the Story from Multiple Perspectives,”

illustrates how multiple frameworks for examining stories and personal issues can

result in breakthroughs in client understanding. Too many counselors and interviewers

assume that their clients’ concerns are self-created and miss contextual issues such as

the impact of family, significant others, and multicultural and social factors.

Focusing is a skill that enables multiple renditions of the story and will help you and

your clients think of new possibilities for restorying. Often issues are considered from

only one frame of reference. Client issues are often more complex than they seem;

focusing can help in seeing an issue more completely, thus ensuring more satisfying

decisions and actions. For cultural competence, focusing is a crucial skill that allows

and encourages us to think about broader systems and cultural issues that might affect

Awareness, knowledge, skills, and actions developed through the concepts of this

chapter will enable you to:

▲ Help clients expand their stories and describe their issues from multiple frames of

reference.

▲ Operate more effectively in our diverse society by enabling clients to see

themselves as selves-in-relation and persons-in-community through community and

family genograms.

▲ Include advocacy, community awareness, and social change as part of your

interviewing practice.

INTRODUCTION

Focusing is a skill whose importance and relevance seem to increase over time. We have

placed the community genogram in the beginning chapter as it provides a basis for story-

telling and multiple perspectives.

Central in the concept of focus is multiple perspectives. Focusing seems to be a very

concrete strategy that leads to perspective taking, even among your students, who may be

more concrete operational in cognitive/emotional style.

The skill of focusing is a derivative of the concept of selective attention (Chapter 3) and

makes the major point that clients and interviewers can head in many different directions

OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER AND MINDTAP SUPPORT

DEFINING FOCUSING

Focusing is an important skill that enables clients to gain a more complete understanding

of issues affecting their lives. This section describes the skill and outlines what interviewers

can anticipate when they use this skill. Counselors can help clients steer through these

List of MindTap resources available for this section:

1. Interactive Exercise 1: Identify Focus Dimensions. Work through the Samantha and

Janet session to identify the responses using focus analysis and to score your

DISCERNING THE SKILL OF FOCUSING

The case of Vanessa gives students the opportunity to consider how they would respond

to several very different issues that she presents. Through examples of various possible

responses, students are introduced to the specific areas of microskill focusing. These

List of MindTap resources available for this section:

2. Weblink: The Community Genogram: Identifying Strengths. Learn how to build

3. Weblink: Developing a Community Genogram: Identifying Personal and Multicultural

4. Weblink: GenDraw, a German website with Genogram drawing capability.

OBSERVING THE SKILL OF FOCUSING

This section presents the skill of focusing in action. The session with Janet and Samantha

List of MindTap resources available for this section:

1. Interactive Exercise 3: Focusing on Resources. This exercise gives you an opportunity

PRACTICING MAPPING THE WEB OF RELATIONSHIPS, COMMUNITY, AND

FAMILY GENOGRAMS

Encourage your students to make their own community genogram. It is a good way to

List of MindTap resources available for this section:

1. Interactive Exercise 4: Writing Alternative Focusing Statements. A good way to

REFINING THE SKILL OF FOCUSING

Interviewing and counseling constantly involve moral issues, values, and social justice.

This section emphasizes the fact that we cannot avoid these issues in most interviews.

List of MindTap resources available for this section:

1. Case Study: Career Counseling in Social Context: The “System” and the Client. A

DEMONSTRATIONS AND VIDEOS TO SUPPLEMENT ESSENTIALS OF

INTENTIONAL INTERVIEWING, Third Edition

CLASS PROCEDURES

The following is the basic framework we use for teaching focusing. The exercise of

Robert Marx discussed here is what we use again and again to introduce this concept.

1. Introduction. Focusing and closed and open questions are called “the moderate triad.”

These three skills permit the interviewer to move in a variety of directions. For those

seeking to make sense of the interview and to act intentionally, focusing and

questioning skills often prove the most valuable of all the skills in this book.

3. The community genogram. If we want to understand the

cultural/environmental/contextual history of our client, the community genogram will

be invaluable. This new strategy has been well-received by both students and

4. Content presentation. See key points in the text. You may wish to use the

downloadable PowerPoint™ slides available for this book.

5. Practice. It is particularly important that each aspect of focusing be tried in the

5. Generalization and self-assessment. The most difficult focus dimension for trainees

6. The genogram or family chart. This is found in Appendix II. We are deeply

impressed with how it helps interviewing trainees take a more contextual approach to

The words “family chart” may be preferred to family genogram. This enables the

adoptive client or those who may prefer emphasis on extended family to generate

their own style of family.

Students enjoy sharing their genograms or family charts with their class members,

and this exercise itself can be a good place to practice focusing. For example, the

9. Portfolio of Competence. As always, review the portfolio and its importance.

GROUP PRACTICE WITH FOCUSING

Step 1: Divide into groups.

Step 2: Select a group leader.

Step 3: Assign roles for the first practice session.

Step 4: Plan. Establish clear goals for the session. The task of the interviewer in this case

is to go through all seven types of focus, systematically outlining the client’s

issue. If the task is completed successfully, a broader outline of issues related to

the client’s concern should be available.

Step 5: Conduct a five-minute practice session using the focusing skill.

Some general reminders. Be sure to cover all types of focus; many practice sessions