FORM FOR PROCESS RECORDING
Name of interviewer:
Name of person playing role:
Date: 10-7-2004
Verbal content and intonation / Nonverbal Content / Reflection(How I was feeling or how I believe the client was feeling)
Interviewer / Hi Client. Nice to meet you. My name is Worker.(upbeat and high tone) / Stands up to greet, smiles, and shakes hand / I am nervous about meeting her. I am trying to disguise those feelings by being positive.
Client / Hi.(less enthusiastic) / Returns handshake / I am nervous about meeting you and am not sure what to expect.
Interviewer / Come in and make yourself comfortable. Can I get you any coffee, anything to drink? / Gestures to refreshments / I am trying to ensure her comfort and establish rapport.
Client / No thanks. / Sits down, legs and arms crossed / I do notwant to be a burden. I am not comfortable accepting your offer right now.
Interviewer / Ok. Well, first off, I just wanted to thank you for coming here today. It probably took a lot of courage. How are you feeling about being here? / A look of concern / I am offering encouragement and support by recognizing how difficult this meeting must be for her.
Client / I'm ok. It's a little nerve-wracking to see new people. (high tone of voice) / Hesitates, looks around / I want to reach out, but I amalso pulling back by not giving you too much information. I want to see how you react first.
Interviewer / Hopefully we'll get to know each other a little better and you won’t be so anxious. Pretty much, what I have today… I have a few goals. I'd like to get to know you a little better, and then do the group interview screening, to kind of decide if you’re going to be a good fit for us and were going to be a good fit for you. We want to make sure needs are getting met both ways. So those are my goals for today. Do you have anything that you'd like to address?(speaking quickly at first, then slowing down) / Uses fingers to count the two goals / Oops! I missed an opportunity to explore her feelings andinstead, just labeled them as anxious. I feel like I screwed up and am getting anxious myself. I am going to take a few deep breaths and attempt to get back on track.
Client / No, not today. I just wanted to come in and get to know you guys. (slowly) / Looks confused / I have concerns, but I am not sure if you are going to talk about them. I think I willl just wait and see where this goes.
Interviewer / If you have any questions, just feel free to interrupt at any time. And then, also to let you know, I'm going to be writing down for the intake. Not any judgments, just some notes for our documents. Don't feel nervous about it; if you'd like to see it at the end, let me know. / Pointing to support group screening questionnaire / I wanted to be open and let her be a part of this process. I am afraid I am overwhelming her with information.
Client / Ok. / Nods / I was not nervous about that until you mentioned it. Should I be?
Interviewer / Like I said, my name is Worker. I'm a graduate intern, so I'm kind of new to this role, but I've actually been a volunteer here for two years. PAVSA is a sexual assault agency in Southern St. Louis Country, so we serve some people from Wisconsin, but mostly in Minnesota. We have a crisis line(a twenty-four hour crisis line), we do education, counseling. We get involved in a lot of different things… and of course support groups, which is why you are here today. The one thing I want to let you know is whatever we say here today is confidential and all of the services are free. But the one thing that wouldn’t be confidential is that I'm a mandated reported, which means that if you let me know about some kind of child abuse, child sexual abuse, or a vulnerable adult being abused, I would be required to report that (sounds very rehearsed) / Direct eye contact, leaning in toward client / Iwant to clearly describe PAVSA’s services, discuss my role, and talk about mandated reporting.
Client / Ok. / Nods / Are we ever going to get to why I am here?
Interviewer / Do you have any questions about that? / I realize I am talking a lot and want to bring herinto the conversation.
Client / No.
Interviewer / I'm sorry, I feel like I’ve been talking a lot, but that's kind of the basic housekeeping. And now hopefully I can do more listening and hear more from you. Let's see, you are Client. And can I get a phone number to call you at? / Beginning to write on questionnaire / I feel anxious, since I am doing all the talking. I know I need to establish rapport, but I do not know what to say. I will use the questionnaire to facilitate conversation. I realize this is a less than ideal way to get her to open up.
Client / 123-4567.
Interviewer / And is it ok to leave a message there? Is that a safe place? (slowly) / I am checking to make sure I will be maintaining confidentiality if I call her at home. I might have sounded like I was talking down to her when I asked if it was a safe place.
Client / Um hum.
Interviewer / Ok. And let's see… you were referred by your therapist. And then the first thing I'd like to get an idea of, what kind of treatment history have you had? Have you had therapists, counseling? Have you been in a support group before? / Direct eye contact / I do not think I made this question clear. In the future, I would beak it down into smaller pieces.
Client / No. I haven't been in a support group. I just recently started to go see my therapist because I got into a relationship and I'm having a really hard time with that. I just feel like I need something to help me get along. / Hestitates / You just asked me a bunch of questions… this was confusing.
Interviewer / Ok. So you're seeing a therapist. And that's ongoing when you’re in the support group? / Writing / I am checking for support systems.
Client / Yeah.
Interviewer / Is there anything specific that works well for you that you've found or that doesn't work that we should know? (stumbling over words a bit) / Again, I was not clear enough. I am trying to ask about her expectations for the group.
Client / I guess there’s some things… how many people are going to be in the support group? / Looking down / I want to steer the conversation in a different direction.
Interviewer / The support group we like to keep at five to six. Five to six is the ideal number, just because we want to keep it small so you can build that trust and feel like there’s a bond with the group. We've had groups as small as two people before. We have about four people interested right now and with you that would be five if everyone ended up coming.(quickly) / My answer is too lengthy. I am following my agenda and not hers. I should have reached deeper into her question. Perhaps she is scared of having to share her story with a large group of people. I could have explored this and potentially validated her feeling.
Client / Are these people that have already been together in a group?(worry in voice) / Leans forward / I am afraid of feeling isolated.
Interviewer / Nope. No one will know each other. People are in different stages of the process in terms of healing. Some were recently assaulted, some were assaulted in childhood and now in adulthood are wanting to deal with that. So kind of a big range of people. / Again, I answer her direct communication and ignore her indirect communication.
Client / Ok.
Interviewer / Those are really good questions though, because I definitely want you to know what to expect and see if it is something you want to get into. And let’s see… since were talking about that, what kind of expectations do you have about being in group? How would you like your life to be different? / Smiling and nodding / I try to encourage her to ask more questions, by reinforcing that behavior. I go back to an earlier question and try to be more specific about my meaning. It might have been more helpful to explore her feelings about the group format.
Client / I guess I'd like to be happy. I want to be able trust people that I'm with and not always wonder when someone's going to hurt me again. / I’m reaching out a little bit further.
Interviewer / Alright. And actually, trust is a big thing that we work on in group. What we usually do is it's a ten week (two hours a week for ten weeks) ongoing… and each week we focus around a specific topic. And one of the weeks is trust. Because a very common feeling is to kind of feel like your trust and boundaries been violated and help relearn that. / I key in on trust because I know we address that topic. However, I ignore what trust means for her. Also, what does it mean for her to be happy? I am following my own agenda. I have missed a big opportunity.
Client / Ok. / Nodding / I am glad that the way I feel is normal.
Interviewer / And then something that's kind of important… You’re going to be doing a lot of tough work in group. A lot of feelings, maybe some that you haven't even felt yet, are going to come up. It’s going to be hard to listen to other people’s stories. So, do you have some kind of support system in place, somebody or people that you feel comfortable talking to?(serious tone) / I am trying to find out more about her support system. I think I did an ok job of this.
Client / Just my therapist. I just recently moved here. I'm kind of new to the area and most of my friends are out of state. It's kind of hard for me, so that’s why I’ve started seeing a therapist. / Looking away / I am feeling alone and isolated.
Interviewer / Can you, like, call friends? Are you comfortable talking about issues like this?(quivering tone that doesn’t sound confident) / Once again, I missed an opportunity to explore her feelings. I am too concerned with my own agenda.
Client / Sometimes it’s hard because the person that assaulted me was someone that hung out with the group of us. So it’s been really hard to reconnect with everyone in that group. / Difficulty maintaining eye contact / You are not hearing me. I said, "I am feeling alone and isolated."
Interviewer / (Pause) I can imagine. That can really change dynamics in a friendship.(stammering) / I don’t know what to say. I see that she is expressing pain, but I shy away from it. “I can imagine” was not the most empathetic thing to say, either.
Client / Um hum. / How can you know what it is like? Have you been through this before?
Interviewer / I'd be a little concerned about that. We usually want to make sure there’s a good support system in place, because of that hard work. Something I could recommend is maybe if we go forward with this process, I could get you in touch with an advocate at the agency. During the week when you’re not in group, you could give them a call and kind of touch base to see how things are going. Just because, like I said, your going to be going through some tough feelings, and we want to make sure you have a safe way to talk about those. If that'd be ok?(speaking quickly) / I just pushed an advocate on her. I made it sound like having an advocate would be required for her to be in our group. She was in a position where it was hard to say no. I disempowered her. I do not feeling good about this.
Client / Ok. / Nods / What exactly am I agreeing to?
Interviewer / And this is if you totally feel comfortable sharing with me too, but, any idea of your sexual assault history, just in general?(sounding unsure) / Avoiding eye contact by looking at questionnaire / The minute this came out of my mouth, I realized it was a big mistake. I am asking for too much, too soon. If she has not freely offered this information, she is probably not ready to share it with me. I also realize that by not sounding confident when I asked it, I made
the topic seem taboo.
Client / Well, it happened seven years ago, and so it’s not something I really dealt with at the time. This is the first relationship I've been in since that, which is why it’s been so hard lately. I don't know, it was in college, and it was just someone we hung out with all the time and typical college stuff, going to parties, drinking and things like that. And you know, we went back to my place, and that's when it happened. And it’s been hard for me ever since to really trust anyone. I thought maybe moving would help things, you know, to get away from that whole dynamic. You know, I was in that same city for so long with those people, because this was freshman year of college and I had on campus for four years. (sounds unsure, voice quivers) / Avoiding direct eye contact / I do not feel good about telling you this. But I guess I will because you are the professional. I will just intellectualize the story and leave out the feelings because that is easier. If I have such a hard time telling my story to you, will I be able to tell a group of people? Maybe I am not ready to be in a group.
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