Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills

This text can be used in all clinical skills courses and practica across the human services. It is designed to teach students the fundamental interviewing tools (e.g., empathy, reflection, summarizing, etc.) that comprise professional clinical contact. After orienting students to their responsibilities as new practitioners, the author presents, in clear and concise language, essential clinical communication tools in a unified format. Each section presents: (1) the name of the tool, (2) rationale for use, (3) exemplary dialogue between therapist and client demonstrating actual usage/s of the tool, (4) tutorial commentary embedded in the dialogue example, (5) dialogue debriefing, and (6) suggestions for variations.