Jim Quinn's Approach to Counselling
Greet your client with energized presence. The interaction you are about to enter into with your client is well set with genuine positive regard immediately at the beginning of your session, as per the direction of Carl R. Roger (1957).
Begin where the client is at. This meeting is for your client, set the agenda with the direction and guidance of your client. If using a protocol, show the protocol to your client and ask them if they would like to make any adjustments. Knowing and utilizing the Solution Focused stance of counselling is ideal to make this happen, as Frederike Bannink (2006) illustrates in her book 1001 Solution Focused Questions.
Proceed to where your client would like to be. Build a map using your client’s direction. “To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world” (Aristotle, n.d., online).
Be patient. The best goal in therapy is to be with your client in regard to where they are what were they would like to head. Christine Padesky (1993) reminds us that the best questions in therapy are those that lead to the best answers for your client and these are found through utilization of the answers and findings gained by your client. “Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well” (Epictetus, n.d., online).
Be genuinely curious; developing mindfulness skills is very helpful in this regard; the Miracle of Mindfulness written by Hanh (1976) provides great description of mindfulness. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor affirms that human beings wish to be heard and being heard is curative in and of itself: “emotions heal when they are heard and validated” (Bolte Taylor, 2008, online).
Listen with your ears, heart, soul and gut. Remember Irvin Yalom’s (2017) dictum that your-self as a therapist is akin to a finely tuned musical instrument. Daniel Siegel (2011) reminds us that there is great benefit of bringing our complete presence to therapy and that our gut instincts are important to listen to. “Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think” (Bolte Taylor, 2008, online).
Share your impressions with your client, Irvin Yalom (2017) reminds us that as much as you are interviewing your client, your client is interviewing you as well. Yalom (2017) also reminds us that the use of the ‘here in now’ in therapy is of critical importance for use in therapy itself.
Be genuine and real. Use energy, enthusiasm, humour, metaphor, wit, analogy and story-telling; human beings are not robots, be genuine, real and human.
Embrace humour. Humour deeply connects us to the experience of being truly human.
Keep in mind that the counselling session is but a check in, pit stop, during the ebb and flow of the rest of life. The content of the counselling session is best when it allows your client to better meet their challenges in life noted through the concerns they illustrate in therapy; work with the affirmation that change is only possible with application and work towards goals that allow your client to attenuate their lived concerns, directly in their lived experience.
Continuously seek, in regards the value of genuine seeking itself, since it is being with your client during the seeking process, in being genuinely curious in a non-judgemental, truly mindful manner, that your client will learn such skills. The role modelling you provide in therapy is important and your client can learn this from you. ““No star is ever lost we once have seen, We always may be what we might have been” (Procter, 1861, online).
Be simple as possible, complex ideas can cloud the simple, boil down ideas, work to discover ideas through your client’s perspective. Life is most often best found when actively seeking while insuring true presence is occurring. Remember that clients find most value during times when they receive your “positive supportive statements” (Yalom, 2017, online) and extend to them positive regard in a positive way as per the direction of Rogers (1957).
Be humble and be human. Irvin Yalom (2017) affirms that a counselling session is the meeting of two human beings and you are one of them. “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought” (Bashō, n.d., online)
References:
Aristotle. (n.d.). On the soul. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.1.i.html
Aurelius, M. (n.d.). The meditations. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
Bannink, F. (2006). 1001 solution focused questions. New York, NY: Norton.
Bashō, M. (n.d.). Matsuo Bashō. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/26897-do-not-seek-to-follow-in-the-footsteps-of-the
Bolte Taylor, J. (2008). My stroke of insight. Retrieved from https://ed.ted.com/lessons/jill-bolte-taylor-s-stroke-of-insight
Bordin, E. S. (1979). The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 16(3), 252-
260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0085885
Epictetus. (n.d.). The enchiridion. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html
Hanh, T. (1976). The miracle of mindfulness: an introduction to the practice of meditation. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Padesky, C. (1993). Proceedings from the European Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies: Socratic Questioning: Changing Minds or Guided Discovery. London: UK.
Procter, A. (1861). A Legend of Provence Poem. Retrieved from https://classic-literature.co.uk/adelaide-anne-procter-verse-a-legend-of-provence-poem/
Rogers, C. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95-103.
Siegel, D. (2011). The mindful therapist [Scribd version]. Retrieved from Scribd app
Yalom, I. (2017). The gift of therapy: an open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients [Scribd version]. Retrieved from Scribd app
This document (which I have titled JIm Quinn's Psychotherapy Aide Memoire) can be downloaded here:
- My Counselling Background and Approach - Described in Response to a Request from an Undergraduate Student
During my Masters practicum I received an inquiry from Carissa Ross, a student of the Family & Community Social Services (FCSS) program of the University of Guelph-Humber, in which she asked: "I am doing a paper for my Crisis Intervention class on PTSD. There is an interview portion that I have to do for my paper where I would like to ask you about what you think I should know if I were to work with your clientele. Also about the skills, qualities, training you think crisis intervention workers need and the model(s) of intervention you use etc" (Carissa Ross, email communication, February 15, 2019).
Carissa gave me permission to reference her work in my e-portfolio.
The questions below are from Carissa and the responses are mine:
Crisis Intervention Interview Questions – by Jim Quinn
"Tell me a little bit about yourself (background schooling, what work you do now)?"
My name is Edward James (Jim) Quinn and I have been a military mental health nurse since 2006; my updated resume is attached. In regards my education, I graduated from Queen’s University School of Nursing in 2000, have taken the Advanced Studies in Mental Health certificate program with Mount Royal College and have received my Certification in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing (Clinical) from the Canadian Nurses Association. I also have certification as a Quality Rated provider of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"What are some of the skills, qualities and training that you as a crisis intervention worker need (what models of intervention do you use)?"
To best provide trauma-focused counselling, it is my experience that a counsellor must be able to know and utilize the principle of Person-Centred Therapy (PCT), as described by Carl Rogers and be able to effectively build and maintain a working /therapeutic alliance with clients. It is also very helpful to have training in Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT). The specific therapeutic modality I utilise in my clinical practice is CPT; I also have training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
"What do you think I should know if I was to work with your clientele?"
That human beings experience counselling/psychotherapy most effectively when it is provided with a foundation utilizing PCT, SFT, MI and with a focus on creating and maintain an effective working alliance. I have written a document called Jim Quinn’s Psychotherapy Aide-Memoire, which I am attaching as a reference, since the principles I find most helpful in counselling are noted on this document.
"What is it like for you to do the work that you do (how does it impact you)?"
I find that work as a psychotherapist is alignment with who I am as a person, in that I have always wished to help other people. Counselling work can be challenging at times, however it is very gratifying to know that you as a person has helped another person.
"What was your toughest case?"
My toughest case involved a person who came to resent the pro-social changes that the person experienced as a result of trauma-focused therapy. The client concerned had a conflict with another person and came to resent that they had not responded aggressively, due to the change of perspective gained in therapy and then was angry since they wished they had responded aggressively later (in this case it would have been very unhelpful if the person had responded with aggression).
"What is the easiest part of your job (what should someone getting into your field know before hand)?"
The easiest part of my job is due to the fact that when people report requesting counselling, they truly wish to engage the work required during the counselling process. When counselling services are initiated, it is of course important to ask a client what their goals in counselling are and once yourself and the client agree upon the goals and focus of counselling, the application of clinical modalities (as described above) becomes easy to do.
The full document that I sent to Carissa can be downloaded here:
Carissa gave me permission to reference her work in my e-portfolio.
The questions below are from Carissa and the responses are mine:
Crisis Intervention Interview Questions – by Jim Quinn
"Tell me a little bit about yourself (background schooling, what work you do now)?"
My name is Edward James (Jim) Quinn and I have been a military mental health nurse since 2006; my updated resume is attached. In regards my education, I graduated from Queen’s University School of Nursing in 2000, have taken the Advanced Studies in Mental Health certificate program with Mount Royal College and have received my Certification in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing (Clinical) from the Canadian Nurses Association. I also have certification as a Quality Rated provider of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"What are some of the skills, qualities and training that you as a crisis intervention worker need (what models of intervention do you use)?"
To best provide trauma-focused counselling, it is my experience that a counsellor must be able to know and utilize the principle of Person-Centred Therapy (PCT), as described by Carl Rogers and be able to effectively build and maintain a working /therapeutic alliance with clients. It is also very helpful to have training in Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT). The specific therapeutic modality I utilise in my clinical practice is CPT; I also have training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
"What do you think I should know if I was to work with your clientele?"
That human beings experience counselling/psychotherapy most effectively when it is provided with a foundation utilizing PCT, SFT, MI and with a focus on creating and maintain an effective working alliance. I have written a document called Jim Quinn’s Psychotherapy Aide-Memoire, which I am attaching as a reference, since the principles I find most helpful in counselling are noted on this document.
"What is it like for you to do the work that you do (how does it impact you)?"
I find that work as a psychotherapist is alignment with who I am as a person, in that I have always wished to help other people. Counselling work can be challenging at times, however it is very gratifying to know that you as a person has helped another person.
"What was your toughest case?"
My toughest case involved a person who came to resent the pro-social changes that the person experienced as a result of trauma-focused therapy. The client concerned had a conflict with another person and came to resent that they had not responded aggressively, due to the change of perspective gained in therapy and then was angry since they wished they had responded aggressively later (in this case it would have been very unhelpful if the person had responded with aggression).
"What is the easiest part of your job (what should someone getting into your field know before hand)?"
The easiest part of my job is due to the fact that when people report requesting counselling, they truly wish to engage the work required during the counselling process. When counselling services are initiated, it is of course important to ask a client what their goals in counselling are and once yourself and the client agree upon the goals and focus of counselling, the application of clinical modalities (as described above) becomes easy to do.
The full document that I sent to Carissa can be downloaded here: