1. Chapter 9 • Skills of Confrontation: • Supporting while Challenging

2. Hierarchy of Skills • Confrontation • The Five Stages of Interview Structure • Reflection of Feeling • Encouraging, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing • Client Observation Skills • Open and Closed Questions • Attending Behavior • Ethics & Multicultural Competence

3. Knowledge & Skill in Confrontation • Identify incongruity, discrepancies, or mixed messages in behavior, thought, feelings, or meanings. • Increase client talk with a view toward resolution of conflict and discrepancies. • Identify client change processes occurring during the interview.

4. Helping Clients Move from Inaction to Action • Assume Clients are “Stuck” (Perls) • Immobility • Repeating thoughts or behavior that are not “working” (Glasser/Reality therapy) • Lack of understanding (Cognitive therapy) • Limited behavioral repertoire (Behavioral) • Limited life script (Narrative therapy)

5. Challenging Client in a Supportive Fashion • Involves listening to the client carefully and respectfully, • Then seeking to help the client examine self or situation more fully. • Seeking clarification as a supportive challenge, which seeks the resolution of difficulties. • Seeking a change which comes from the client.

6. Process of confrontation • Step 1: Identify the conflict; note mixed messages, and incongruity. • Step 2: Point out issues of incongruity and work to resolve them. • Step 3: Evaluate the change.

7. Identifying Discrepancies • Discrepancies to the self • Saying one thing and doing another. • Using two concepts that are not logical together. • Discrepancies between client and the external world. • Discrepancies between you and the client. • Specific strengths. • Identify strengths that can help you resolve internal and external differences.

8. Discrepancies • Generalities like “always” and “never” and “everybody” • Cognitive Distortions: • Always needing to be “right,” or that everyone must agree with you. • “Black” or “white” thinking, all or nothing…. • The myth of “Heaven’s Reward”

9. Step 2: Point out issues of incongruity and work to resolve them. • I’m confused…(eliciting client’s help with your confusion) • On one hand, I hear you saying…. • And on the other hand, I hear you saying…. • Could you help me understand how those two thoughts go together?

10. Evaluating the Change(The Confrontation Impact Scale) • 1. Denial • 2. Partial examination • 3. Acceptance and recognition • 4. Generation of a new solution • 5. Development of new, larger, and more inclusive constructs, patterns, behavior – transcendence.

11. Practice Confronting Carefully