Interpersonal and Relational Processes in Conjoint Behavioral

Consultation

Ariadne Schemm

&

Valerie Gortmaker

Development of Relationship-Building Competencies in Consultees

Overt Didactic Approach

Role Model

Practice

Feedback

Training Interpersonal Skills

Skill Domains

• Microskills

• Perspective Taking

• Building Partnerships

• Conflict Management

Microskills

• Open Questions

• Minimal Encouragers

• Reflection

• Self-disclosure

• Paraphrase/Summarize

Open Questions

• Questions that are designed to elicit more than a single response (they open the opportunity for the client to talk, elaborate, and/or describe situations)

• Video Clip

Minimal Encouragers

• Statements or gestures that encourage the consultee to communicate their thoughts or ideas (e.g., um hum, huh or head nods).

Reflection

• A statement made by the consultant that responds to the emotional tone of the consultee’s message.

Self-Disclosure

• Personal experiences of the consultant shared with the consultee within the consultative relationship.

Paraphrase

• Paraphrase: A statement that rephrases the content of the consultee’s message (i.e., describing a situation, event, person, or idea) using one’s own language.

• Video Clip

Summarize

• Summarize: A statement that combines two or more paraphrases and condenses the essential elements of the consultee’s message.

Perspective Taking

• Listen to and Acknowledge Different Perspectives

• Adopt a Non-deficit Approach

• Be Responsive

Listen to and Acknowledge Different Perspectives

• Help the consultees see that the situation can be viewed from different vantage points, and that this can be beneficial for problem-solving.

• Video Clip

Adopt a Non-deficit Approach

• Place attention on the shared strengths of the home, school and child, rather than on efforts to “fix” child, family or school problems.

• Video Clip

Be Responsive

• Attend to consultee’s needs and provide effective resources.

Building Partnerships

• Point out Similar Experiences

• Point out Consultee Contributions

• Develop Opportunities for Positive Communication

Point out Similar Experiences

• Highlight the similarity of examples provided by the parents and teachers.

Point out Consultee Contributions

• Recognize the benefits associated with the unique contributions of parents and educators.

Positive Communication

• Emphasize the positive and realistic aspects of the child (e.g., “good news” phone calls).

Conflict Management

• Focus on Mutual Goals

• Use Language to Unify (e.g., us, we, our)

• Reframing

• Provide Structure

• Read Nonverbal Language

Focus on Mutual Goals

• Place an emphasis on the situation and concerns shared across systems, not the individual parent, teacher or student.

Use Language to Unify

• Emphasize a team concept with words such as “we,” “us,” and “together.”

Reframing

• Re-name or re-label a consultee’s thoughts, feelings, or beliefs about a particular individual, situation, or process to provide an alternate positive frame of reference.

Provide Structure

• Use the structured problem solving steps to systematically resolve the issue.

Read Nonverbal Language

• Be attentive to the consultee’s nonverbal cues.

• Interpersonal skills are the keys to bringing systems together in a supportive and collaborative manner. – Didactic supervision presents interpersonal skills as a vehicle to

build home-school partnerships.

– Role playing and role-modeling provide interpersonal practice to facilitate individual development.

– On-site practicum provides training and feedback experience in real-life situations.

The Effect of Good Interpersonal Skills

• Interpersonal skills are the roots upon which one needs to build the more systemic goals to ultimately meet the needs of the child.

• Build awareness of interpersonal skills through building competencies.

• Once competencies are built, consultants use skills to ultimately meet more systemic goals of providing home-school partnerships and focusing on family needs.