CHAPTER 14 BASIC COUNSELING SKILLS- 101 Basic Counseling Skills - 101 As mentioned earlier, mentoring is a different relationship with your mentee than the relationship a counselor has with a client. However, as a mentor you will end up at some point “counseling” your mentee. Your mentee will begin discussing his feelings, fears, joys and concerns. Hence, it will be important to handle these conversations as would a professional counselor as opposed to how a mother, father, friend, enemy, lover or teacher would respond. If you are already a professional counselor, psychologist, social worker or psychiatrist, GREAT – please use the your skills. All of the rest of you, no worries, here is a crash course. All other “shrinks” indulge in a review. The …show more content…
Such as do you like to play golf. The person will answer yes or no or it’s OK. Probably won’t get much conversation after that. When is your birthday. Specific answer – I would answer November 1st. An open question requires an answer requires thinking and usually more information. Such as ‘what type of leisure activities do you like? Also avoid multiple choice questions – such as Does that make you happy or sad ? By asking either or questions, you limit the person’s response. There are many types of feelings. So instead, ask how does that make you feel. Or what feelings does that bring up for you. Never lead the witness – What is leading the witness? This term is actually from the legal profession. In trials lawyers will object when the lawyer from the other side leads the witness. We lead the person by asking a question in a way that makes him think in a way that he might not have on his own. This channels the person to have a certain mind set. For example… Teen: I hate to be in the house when my Dad gets home from work. All he does is start screaming and yelling. Mentee’s response Leading Question: Does this make you