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For Counsellors

Counsellors from the Action Theory perspective see the processes they encounter as systems of joint goal-directed action (short-term), project (mid-term) and career (long-term). Counsellors recognize that the client-counsellor encounter itself is a goal-directed, joint process and that the relationships clients have with others are also joint processes.

The Self-Confrontation Interview

The self-confrontation interview is an empirical method used from the Action Theory perspective to support understanding of counselling as a goal-directed process. It involves audio- or video-recording the counselling session and playing the recording back to the client, inquiring about his or her thoughts, feelings and sensations. The self-confrontation interview should be conducted as soon as possible following the counselling session, and the recording should be presented in short segments (0.5-3 minutes) to animate the client’s descriptions and avoid his or her general summarizing or drawing inferences.

Popadiuk and colleagues (Popadiuk, Young, & Valach, 2008) asked counsellors about their experience using self-confrontation interviews. Counsellors were positive about the procedure as a way to bring emotions and cognitions to the surface quickly. They saw the procedure as a way to honor and deal with clients’ inner experiences.

The self-confrontation allows the flow of the narratives to be maintained during the counselling session, while allowing for inter- and intrapersonal processes to be highlighting during the self-confrontation. In the self-confrontation, clients can become away of themselves as the constructor of their narratives, as well as alert to processes that they were engaged in; e.g. “I didn’t realize I was doing that”. It can also provide feedback to clients whereby they can realize that their inner experience is not always visible to others. Additionally, the client can be given an opportunity to address an emotion that had arisen during the counselling session, but was not fully made conscious or developed.

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