Negotiating Counseling Objectives

1. Negotiating Counseling Objectives How to find efficient therapeutic objectives

2. Complaints vs. “Real Problems” • Complaint: Are expressed in general and permanent terms, by their own nature, they cannot be worked on, or resolved • Real problems: Are described in terms of actions, thoughts, and emotions, that are experimented in real and specific moments

3. Distinguishing abstractions from specifics • Abstractions: Ideas or opinions that we hold about objects, people or events (interpretations, judgments). They tell us more about the person expressing them, than about the target person. • Specifics: Descriptions about perceptions or sensations

4. Pinpointing (Especificar) • Helps discriminate facts from generalizations • People can begin to understand themselves less in permanent terms like “low self – esteem” or “depressed”, and start to understand themselves like beings who think, feel, and act in a certain manner. • Find the what, how, when, and where

5. Exercise: A or S? • He looked at me and smiled • Appreciated his help • Wanted to be here • He said: “Can I help you?” • Worked towards the library • Spoke with three persons • Enjoyed my company • Got to know better • I felt a chest pain

6. Convert to specifics • Appreciated his help • Wanted to be here • Enjoyed my company • Got to know better

7. Differentiating thoughts, emotions and actions • Thoughts: Mental processing of experience through words or symbols (hard to specify). Emotions: Internal states like: blushing, arm heaviness, moisture on eyes (hard to specify) • Actions: Verbs (Easy to specify)

8. Focusing on a single event • Specifying thoughts, emotions, and actions of a single event allows us to identify the processes involved • People usually talk in terms of abstractions, and this leads us to abstract solutions that do not get played out in reality

9. Goals and objectives • Goals: General and abstract expression of something we would like to achieve: • “I would like to feel better” • “I would like to have a better relationship with my mother” • “I would like to get in shape” • Objectives: Are specific, measurable, concrete • “I would like to cry half the times” • “I would like to sustain a conversation with my mother without fighting” • “I would like to be able to do 60 minutes on the standing bicycle”

10. 3 characteristics of a good objective • What: What we would like to achieve • Where / When: Where will this take place / when will it be achieved • How much: How much is enough? I will wake up at 6:00am to arrive to the University on time, in the morning, for a month, starting today

11. Which one of the following statements complies with all the characteristics of a good therapeutic objective: • I will talk to my mother on the phone at least three times a week, for a month, starting new year's eve • I will heighten my quality of life compared to how I feel today. • I will be cured from my anxieties and obsessions within three months • I will lower the amount of cigarettes that I smoke to only two a day

12. Which one of the following statements complies with all the characteristics of a good therapeutic objective: • What: I will talk to my mother on the phone • How much: at least three times a week for a month • When: starting new year's eve

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