The purpose of this paper is to review literature on the initial interview in the field of counseling. The reviewed material will emphasize assessment and measurement, intake skills and interviewing strategies and forms.
Egan (1975) has characterized counseling as a helping relationships which grows and develops in three concrete stages. These stages are:
(1) a stage in which the helper responds to the client's presenting information in a manner that facilitates the client's self-exploration;
(2) a stage in which the helper identifies themes and patterns in the client's life with the objective of assisting the client to achieve a dynamic self-understanding; and
(3) a stage in which the helper moves the client to take actions associated with more effective and successful living.
However, before the helping relationship develops, Egan (1975) reports that there is a pre-helping stage during which, he states, the helper's goal should be:
. . .Attending: To attend to the other [the client] both physically and psychologically; to give himself entirely to "being with" the other; to work with the other. (p.30)
One element of this pre-helping stage is the initial interview. Of this stage, Benjamin (1969) has stated that the interview focuses on the matter(s) that bring together the client and counselor. The interview ends, Benjamin reports, when both counselor and client understand and agree on the areas which the helping relationship needs to focus.
As to the importance of the interview, Kolb (1971) has stated:
The interview is the most important technical instrument of all those professions concerned with man and his social functioning (Kolb, 1971, p.vii)
What can be noted with respect to Kolb's statement is that in his characterization of the interview as a technical instrument, the implication is that one component of the interview is assessment; e.g. to assess the matters that bring together counselor a...