Immediacy

Definition of immediacy

 Immediacy is a characteristic of a counselor's verbal response describing something as it occurs within a counseling session.

Purposes for Immediacy

 to bring out in the open something you feel about yourself, the client or the relationship that has not been expressed directly,

to generate discussion or provide feedback about some aspect of the relationship, or the interactions as they occur, and

• to facilitate client self-exploration and maintain the focus of the interaction on the client, or the relationship, rather than on the counselor.

Ground rules for immediacy

• the counselor should describe what he or she sees as it happens,

• the counselor should be expressing things in the present tense,

• the counselor should take responsibility for his or her feelings by using the personal pronouns, I, me or mine, and

• the counselor should time his immediate responses so that there is a strong relationship before he uses them.

Ground Rules for Confronting • Be aware of your motives.• To avoid blame, focus on the incongruity of the

problem• Cite a specific example• Confrontation should not occur unless you are willing

to continue in or commitment to the counseling relationship.

• It should be used early in a session• Don't confront on more than two successive occasions• It may take more than confrontation to bring about

resolution of the discrepancy