Therapeutic Counseling Process Paper

There are different various ways to approach the therapeutic counseling process. In general the main stages of counseling include: initial contact, initial interview/assessment, treatment plan development, phase that acts on hypothesis and examines change, and termination (Akamine, In-Class Discussion, June 2, 2015). Initial contact mainly involves building a rapport with the client. This stage is typically done over the phone. The therapist is able to get some basic information about the client as well as share a few things about his/herself, such as therapy orientation and expectations. The therapist can also establish boundaries with the client (Akamine, In-Class Discussion, June 2, 2015). The initial interview is the next stage and is usually the first physical contact the therapist and client have. In this stage the therapist assesses the client on different levels that would include: motivation, therapy expectations, and exploring barriers (Akamine, In-Class Discussion, June 2, 2015). In addition, the therapist can rule out red flags in this stage such as suicide …show more content…
In this stage, the therapist and client can discuss in more detail what the client’s goals are. Based on the client’s goals, the therapist can create a treatment plan through the use of the necessary interventions. In the next meeting after the initial interview the therapist can do a more formal intake to examine the presenting complaint, current functioning, living situation, family history, personal history, and previous treatment (Pipes & Davenport, 1999). This will better equip the therapist in treating the client by covering all the basics. I think it’s important to note that when asking a client what he/she is hoping to achieve through therapy that even in what seems to be the most straightforward cases, sometimes the client does not know how to ask for what he/she wants or is unable to be specific (Pipes & Davenport,