Chapter 10: Focusing the Interview Exploring the Story from Multiple Perspectives

Focusing Enables multiple telling of the story and will help you and clients think of new possibilities for re-storying.

Putting Stories in Context Clients tend to talk about topics to which you give your primary attention. By your use of listening skills, you indicate to your client what is of most interest and what you consider most important to talk about.  Focusing is a more specific form of selective attention—it is the emphasis that you give in your sessions to clients. At this point, think about topics which particularly interest you and you might give special attention to in the interview. 

Individual Focus This is where MOST of the focus should be in the beginning…on the client.

Main theme or problem focus Drawing out the client’s story. A dual focus…focusing on both the individual and their issues.

Other Focus When we focus on others (friends, family, supervisors, co-workers) There is a danger of failing to consider the individual who sits before us.

Family Focus Important: to understand your client in the cultural context of family. Genograms allow your client a vehicle to observe family relationships, sometimes with new insights.

Mutuality Focus Brings immediacy to the examination of the interviewer/client relationship. Uses the interviewer as an instrument. How the client reacts to the interviewer can be an indication of how the client develops in relation to other people.

Interviewer Focus Counselor self-disclosure: should be used only for therapeutic purposes, Used only with a therapeutic purpose, with the focus brought back to the client immediately…asking for their reaction.

Cultural/environmental/contextual Focus: Getting a feeling for the “person-as-community. Include issues of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, spirituality, SES, etc. to better understand the context and solution of the problem.