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Getting Started with
Clients2013-2014 JumpStart!/Orientation
UNC at Chapel Hill School of Social Work
Rebecca J. Macy, PhD, ACSW, LCSW
L. Richardson Preyer Distinguished Chair for Strengthening Families
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Dr.
Mimi Chapman & Dr.
Kim Strom-Gottfried
for giving this same
talk in the past & for
generously sharing
their materials with
me!
Today’s Workshop…
Professional social work interviews:
what they are not & what they are
Importance of relationship
Preparing your office/space &
yourself
Common interview issues &
challenges
Strategies for successful interviews
Exercise, Debrief & Wrap-up
Professional Social Workers are
NOT Oprah Winfrey
In closing her interview,
Winfrey asked
Armstrong a question
that left him
perplexed: “Will you
rise again?” – New York
Times, 1/18/2013
Sensational
Preconceived answer
Professional Social Workers are
NOT Joe Friday
“Where were you last week
when you were supposed to
be at work?”
Interrogatory
Confrontational
More than “Just the facts,
ma’am. Just the facts.”
Professional Social Workers are
NOT Larry King
“What is your new movie
about???”
“How does it feel to be
married into royalty?”
“What in the world were
you thinking??”
Curious
Wandering
Professional Social Workers are
NOT Dear Abby
[Based on your two
paragraph history]
“You should use
tough love to deal
with your daughters
drug problem.”
One-directional
Advice giving
Professional Social Work
Interviews Are…
Purposeful
Structured
Flexible
Explorative
Engaging-
Social workers seek to
build positive, working
relationships
Why Are Relationships Important to
Social Work Practice?
Change & growth often occur in
a relational context
Having a relationship with a
client gives you a position to
facilitate change
Relationship dynamics &
interpersonal interactions
provide the worker with an
important assessment tool
Components of Relationships that
Facilitate Change
1. Empathy A worker’s ability to verbally & behaviorally convey a deep
understanding of the client’s feelings, beliefs & perspective
2. Authenticity/Genuineness A worker’s ability to be “real” with clients
Behaviors & verbal statements should not be contrived, fake, or pandering
3. Understanding the Client’s Story A deep sense of trust enables clients to take risks to be open &
honest
Gathering the important information to create change
Social Work Interviews are Grounded in Our
Professional Ethics & Values
CLIENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO:
Be treated as an individual
Express their feelings
A sympathetic response
Not be judged
Make their own choices
Have their secrets kept
Biestek, 1957: The Casework Relationship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Biestek
Is Your Office or Interviewing
Space Prepared?
Confidential space?
Space that facilitates
comfortable conversation?
Technology consideration?
Space signals that you are
comfortable with relevant,
challenging topics?
Professional dress as
appropriate to your setting?
Are YOU Prepared?
Anxiety, Boredom,
Distracted, Overwhelmed?
Calm, Energized, Focused,
Fully-Present, Receptive?
Aware of your body language
& physical presence?
Know your organization’s
mission, purpose &
resources?
Know the purpose of this
interview?
Professional Social Work Interviews:
Not Just WHAT Clients Say…
Body Language & Tone of Voice
Face; Posture; Gestures,
mannerisms, motor behavior;
Appearance; Mood; Affect
Attend to these nonverbal cues
& pieces of information
Adjust pace & questions
accordingly
Potential Interviewing Challenges
Differences between you & the client: language, culture, age, gender, social economic background, life experience
Your personal biases & prejudices
Interviewees who are: Verbose; Involuntary, reluctant or resistant; Angry, derogatory, threatening; Non-talkative; Disorganized
Common Professional Social Work
Interviewing Errors
Hearing what you want to hear
Sermonizing/moralizing/lecturing
Asking questions that don’t relate to answers
Offering false assurances
Making glib interpretations
Offering premature solutions
Overusing phrases or cliches
Becoming distracted (by interviewee’s dress, manner, style, statements, etc.)
Being uncomfortable with silence
Professional Social Work
Interviewing Strategies:
Building Relationships
& Creating Change
Questioning
Close-ended question Do not allow for
elaboration
Useful for gathering specific information, e.g., aspects of an assessment
Open-ended questions Facilitate understanding of
the client’s story & perspective
Allow client’s to discuss related aspects of their story
Seek Specifity & Concreteness
Importance of clarification
When client’s tell us their story using vague terms or generalities, we may misunderstand or not fully comprehend
Get the details & check-out client’s perceptions & feelings Tell me more about . . .
What do you mean by . . . ?
I want to understand . . .
Show me . . .
Paraphrasing & Reflecting
Useful to reflect both on content & emotions
Can help move meeting or session forward
Clients know they were understood & heard, building a sense of empathy & caring
Clarification of your understanding of the client’s experience or story
Maintaining Boundaries, Clarifying
Expectations & Limit Setting
Clarify client expectations & your role early Be specific about your role &
what services & help you can provide
May be necessary to clarify use of professional & personal self with clients Social work relationships can feel
like friendships to clients
Necessary & appropriate to address in appropriate behaviors, e.g. intoxication, inappropriate interactions
Providing & Maintaining Focus
When overwhelmed, emotional, or anxious people may find it challenging to organize their experience
Useful for workers to use gentle guides to get clients back on the task at hand
Use skill of partializing to help create a focus
Summarizing
Useful to condense & review client’s stories, content of an interview, topics addressed, work or progressed accomplished
Shows an understanding of the client’s story
Make certain you are on the same page with the client E.g., are you ending the
interview with the same expectations?
First Interview Endings
Create a plan for next steps…
Develop homework/next steps for client
Do what you say you are going to do
Referral: Make it & follow up
Next Appointment: Schedule it & keep it
Concrete Assistance: Provide it
Applying What You Are Learning…
Pair up with someone you do not know well or at all
Both of you will be the interviewer & the interviewee
First interviewer will be tasked with finding three pieces of information about the interviewee in a 10 minute conversation; the interviewee does not know what information the interviewer wants; it’s secret!
Two minute silent reflection: write down your thoughts about what went well in the interview, what could be improved
Then, the interviewer & interviewee swap roles & the second interviewer gets new information gathering tasks
Interviewer #1: Gather the
Following Pieces of Information
The interviewee’s
most favorite movie
ever
The best teacher the
interviewee ever had
growing up
The interviewee’s
biggest concern
about graduate
school
Interviewer #2: Gather the
Following Pieces of Information
The interviewee’s most
favorite book ever
The best vacation the
interviewee ever took
The interviewee’s most
embarrassing
experience from high
school
Debrief the Exercise….
Were you able to use some of the strategies we discussed
today when you were the interviewer? Why or why not?
What could you have done differently as the interviewer to
achieve better results? Make the interviewee more
comfortable? Obtain needed informaiton? Build a more
positive relationship?
In your experience as the interviewee, what did you learn
about how our clients feel? Think? React?
What is one lesson-learned from today that you will take with
you into your first professional social work interview?
As a New Social Worker, You Will Make Mistakes! However…
We will make many
mistakes along the way,--
saying things we will
later regret and having
to apologize to clients,
learning from these
mistakes, correcting
them, and then making
more sophisticated
mistakes
Lawrence Shulman, The Skills
of Helping
