Week 9: Interviewing Skills
Picture a client sitting in front of you. What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you retrieve the necessary information while also building rapport? What if the client won’t talk? A client interview might be considered a delicate balance between several opposing forces: question and answer, sound and silence, comfort and discomfort. The social worker must monitor this balance to ensure that the client has the opportunity to speak and that they are secure enough to do so. The social worker must also be intentional about their use of specific skills. These skills can indicate that they are listening, gain clarification about what was said, and confirm that they understand.
In this Discussion, you explore several skills and techniques involved in effective interviewing, as well as the unique qualities that you bring to a client interview.
To prepare:
- Review the “Exploring” text chapter in the Learning Resources. Pay close attention to the descriptions of closed-ended and open-ended questioning, seeking clarification, and paraphrasing.
- Watch the Southside Community Services video in the Learning Resources, which depicts different interview skills in action.
- Make note of the different skills used by the social worker and be ready to provide examples from the video.
Briefly define each of the following skills in your own words. Explain how each of these interviewing skills differs. Then, identify one example of each used in the social work session:
- Use of closed-ended questions
- Use of open-ended questions
- Seeking clarification
- Paraphrasing
Tutorial for Interviewing Skills
