Client-Centered Counseling Skills (Part 3) Lesson Seven: Summary

Topics Covered

Review: Reflections

Reflections are a mirroring statement we provide in response to a client to show them we are listening and to allow them to expand on an idea or correct our understanding of it. We provide examples of reflections with a client and explain the functions of reflections in motivational interviewing (Simple and Complex).  

Summaries

Summaries help the client to feel more understood. We explain the skill of building good summaries through selecting what to include according to one of the three strategies for which summaries are most often used: Collecting, Linking, and Transitional. 

Collecting Summaries

A Collecting Summary is used to reinforce change talk and evoke further change talk. We provide an example of an effective Collecting Summary with a client. 

Building a Collecting Summary

Summaries are built from previous statements we have heard the client make, and possibly reflected back to them at the time they initially made the statement. We provide you with a clients statement and allow you to choose which parts you would include in a Collecting Summary that focuses on change talk.

Linking Summaries

A Linking Summary is used to invite a client to explore ambivalence about change, or to help the client match resources with needs. This is done though connecting material from earlier in the conversation with current conversational content. We provide an example of an effective Linking Summary with a client.

Building a Linking Summary

When building a Linking Summary we are looking for change talk and elements of the clients speech we may want to invite them to reflect on. We provide you with two examples of summaries and ask you to select the best Linking Summary. We provide you with ur answer and explanation to compare with your own.

Transitional Summaries

A Transitional Summary is used to help transition from one topic or Motivational Interviewing Process to another. These summaries include a “key question” that specifically invites the client to transition. We provide an example of an effective Transitional Summary with a client and also provide you with the opportunity to choose the key question from the example.

Building a Transitional Summary

When building a Transitional Summary we are looking for change talk and commitment talk that indicate the client's readiness to take initial steps towards change. A key question about next steps is given at the end of the summary. We provide you with examples of Summaries and allow you to choose which is the Transitional Summary before we provide the answer and explanation. We also provide you with a statement from a client and allow you to build your own summary and key question.

Using Summaries to Help Recognize and Explore Ambivalence 

It is not uncommon for a client to verbalize what they value about the status quo while they also verbalize reasons for change. A type of linking summary can be a useful way of summarizing change talk and status quo talk; inviting the client to explore their ambivalence about change. We provide a conversation with a client that expresses ambivalence and we allow you to pick statements that you would use in a Linking Summary and compare it to our example.