How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 279

intake forms, client attitudinal responses to intake questions vary. The answers to specific questions can often be
left blank, barely stated or understated, or sometimes even overstated. It is the therapist’s responsibility to read
and perhaps utilize any information that may offer the key to unlocking the door to the client’s world.
Prior to the therapy session in the preceding example, the therapist gleaned from the intake form some items that
could possibly offer easier access to the client’s cosmos. From these items, the therapist learned that:
• The client had identified himself as a commercial artist.
• He presented depression as the problem.
• He had prior psychiatric care.
• He had been requested by his wife to attend therapy.
• He was married for 15 years.
The therapist mingled these important factors and hypothesized that they could prove to be useful as a means to
enter the client’s cosmos as naturally as possible. The therapist attempted this by initially utilizing the client’s
talents as they might present an opportunity to both empower the client and join the client from the outset. Once
the session had begun, the therapist quickly utilized the apparent strengths possessed by both the client’s wife
and himself. These became the context and prelude to discussing the presenting problem.
This example illustrates how utilizing client information in the form of strengths and resources could effect a
jump-start in the initial interview of a client who is requested or ordered by the spouse to attend therapy.
However, as with any therapeutic attempts at entering the client’s world, they may fail to achieve the desired
results, and the therapist must move on to alternative strategies. When such is the case, dyadic and triadic
questions may be helpful.

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