Therapist Role Play

Clinical therapists use a variety of tools and techniques to assist clients in identifying presenting problems and their causes, developing understanding of those problems, and affecting solutions to these problems that will provide for significant enhancement of the quality of a patient's life. Role-playing, interviewing, and nonverbal communication elements as this essay will demonstrate, are all of significance in the therapeutic relationship. Stein (2007) suggests that nonverbal methods in personal construct psychotherapy are the key to the successful outcome of therapy itself.

Interviewing in therapy generally refers to the process by means of which the therapist elicits pertinent information from the client regarding his or her perception of problems, issues, and other relevant matters (Santa Ana, Wulfert, & Nietert, 2007). Interviewing is more than a simple set of questions followed by answers. It incorporates role-playing in which the therapist establishes himself or herself in a particular role to encourage a response from the patient. Interviewing also incorporates nonverbal communication, which Stein (2007) states includes the posture, facial expressions, gestures, movements, eye contact patterns, and other physical aspects of the presentation of self by the therapist. Interviewing further incorporates the receipt of feedback from patients which includes expressions regarding their feelings, their goals, their needs, their frustrations, and their desires

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Category: Psychology - T