An initial interview in counseling refers to the first meeting between a client and a counselor. During this phase, both parties are working to ensure that a counseling relationship is established so that they relate cooperatively. Even though both the client and the counselor play a role, the counselor's actions are critical, especially while creating a rapport. The therapist has to build trust with the client so that they disclose the issues affecting them and also feel comfortable while addressing them. The paper describes an initial interview concerning a couple who decides to seek marriage counseling due to the lack of trust, communication, and intimacy between them.
The clients involved are John and the wife Stacy, who lives in Florida where John works earning 5,000 a week while Stacy operates a daycare business for children. However, trust, communication and intimacy aspects lacking in the relationship. For example, John did not appreciate Stacy after attaining a business degree, and whenever Stacy does simple things, John seems uninterested. On the other hand, John finds the wife to be nagging as she jumps into conclusions fast and feels that Stacy does not appreciate how hard he works to support her. Since communication is a problem in this marriage, there are secrets that each of them holds that would significantly affect the marriage. For instance, John had an affair and could be a father soon, an issue that Stacy is not aware of. Regarding intimacy, the provision of marital rights lacks, for example when Stacy rubbed John, as a sign of love, he stopped her. Therefore, the couple is seeking therapy because trust, communication, and intimacy is lacking, which is a threat to their marriage.
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The initial interview involves several steps which contribute to the development of a counseling relationship. Rapport and structure come first where therapists offer the names and profession and also communicates aspects like confidentiality to the clients ( Patterson, Williams, Edwards, Chamow, & Grauf-Grounds, 2018). The clients are also informed about the structure of the session and other information for example payments. Secondly, is the data gathering session where open-ended questions are asked. For example, ‘Tell me about your marriage and the things that led to the decision to seek counseling?’ In this phase, the counselor picks major themes as they form the foundation for counseling ( Hanna, 2018). Goals setting are the following phase, where parties set objectives that would be evaluated at the end, in assessing how helpful the session was. Questions asked here are like ‘What do you want to achieve?’ There is also the generation of alternatives where questions for example ‘how can we look at the story differently?’ Are asked. Finally, is the transfer of the learning phase, where the counselor helps the clients apply the gained knowledge in real life ( Simeone-DiFrancesco, Roediger, & Stevens , 2015). For instance, they would be asked ‘what are you going to do and how? Therefore, the initial interview is supposed to create a counseling relationship between the couple and the counselor and give insights into the issues to be discussed in the subsequent sessions.
In conclusion, considering that both John and Stacy are willing to seek counseling, the approach to be applied in handling their case is couples counseling. The family pattern that has led to the problem is on the psychological needs of people in a romantic relationship. Moreover, the next counseling stage is the early phase treatment; where the counselor assists the couple understands the problem facing the marriage.
References
Hanna, S. M. (2018). The practice of family therapy: Key elements across models . Routledge.
Patterson, J., Williams, L., Edwards, T. M., Chamow, L., & Grauf-Grounds, C. (2018). Essential skills in family therapy: From the first interview to termination . Guilford Publications.
Simeone-DiFrancesco, C., Roediger, E., & Stevens, B. A. (2015). Schema therapy with couples: A practitioner's guide to healing relationships . John Wiley & Sons.
