Chapter 6 Exploration and Elaboration
Chapter Outline
Chapter 6 Exploration and Elaboration
I. Levels of Exploration and Elaboration
A. Moving Between Circles of Conversation
1. Outer circle
2. Middle circle
3. Inner circle
B. Awareness of Cultural Norms, Customs, and Taboos
C. Intervals of Respiteto Cushion Process
II. Techniques of Exploration and Elaboration
A. Questions and Questioning
1. General principles regarding the use of questioning
a. questions should be intentional
b. clients should know why questions are being asked and how information will be used
c. clinician sensitivity to cultural attitudes towards questioning
d. questions should be well-timed
e. too much questioning makes the clinician the director
f. questions can interrupt concentration
g. flexibility in data-gathering is essential
h. good questions can be supportive and therapeutic as well as data-gathering
i. difficult questions should be introduced carefully
j. too little questioning can make for drift, or leave the client at a loss for direction
k. stay with line of inquiry long enough to mine it for sufficient detail
l. follow-up questions are often necessary
m. clinician questions can be both verbal and nonverbal
n. answers to questions can be both verbal and nonverbal
o. clinicians need to attend to apparent themes and patterns emerging in client answers to questions
p. clinicians need to be aware of what they are not asking
q. both clinicians and clients can use questions as defenses or weapons
Exercise 6.1 Opening up Closed-Ended Questions
2. Open-ended and closed-ended questions
a. problems with closed-ended questions
Exercises 6.2 Interviewing Using Questions
3. Tried-and-true questions
4. Problematic types of questions
a. “why” questions
b. pseudo-questions
c. double questions
d. tangential questions
e. “ratatat” questioning
Exercise 6.3 Asking Hard Questions
B. Prompts
1. Brief utterances
2. Signal close attending
C. Silence
1. Can be used to reflect
2. Can be uncomfortable
3. Culture influences use of and response to silences
D. Reflection
1. Used as a probe
2. “Dot-dot-dot” technique
3. Underlining
4. Summarizing
CLIP 6.1 QUESTIONS, PROMPTS, AND PROBES
Exercise 6.4 Using Reflection Techniques to Explore
E. Refocusing
1. Gently inserting a topic into conversation
2. Keeps conversation focused
F. Initiating New Topics
1. When to follow the client’s lead
2. When to introduce new topics
CLIP 6.2 REFOCUSING
III. Important Factors in Effective Exploration
A. Sensitive Timing
1. What and how much to ask, when to ask it, and whom to ask
2. In each interview and across all interviews
3. Watch what evolves when exploration begins
B. State of the Clinical Relationship
1. Level of trust and comfort
2. Ups and downs
3. Sort through stumbling points
C. Client's Readiness to Explore Charged Areas
1. Weigh new learning against emotional price
2. Gradual introduction of deeper levels
3. Check in with client about their reactions
D. Client's Cognitive Capacities and Expressive Style
1. Try to be where the client is
2. Use client’s metaphor
E. Informed and Respectful Process
1. Avoid jargon, pomp, and talking down to people
2. Educational and class differences can cause mistaken
assumptions that undermine appropriate inquiry
F. Maintaining the Not-Knowing Position
1. It’s okay not to know
2. Client as expert
G. Sustaining Techniques to Cushion Intensive Exploration
1. Attend to timing and dosage of inquiry
2. Check-ins
3. Crediting the client’s strengths
4. Slowdowns
6. Validation of the difficulty of disclosure
H. Appreciating and Using “Resistance”
1. Client signals a need for caution/protection
2. Honor and define as sensible
I. Enough is Enough
1. Take a different path or explore with different words
2. Know when to let go
CLIP 6.3 SUSTAINING TECHNIQUES
IV. Conclusion