A great way to assist clients is by employing the skill of decision making, or logical consequences. Originally from Adlerian counseling, the goal is to help clients explore and evaluate possible actions when making a decision.
Clients often come to counseling because they “don’t know what to do.” As you probably (hopefully) already know, as counselors we really shouldn’t be giving clients advice. Why? There are several reasons:
- We are viewing their problem through the filter of our own experience, values and worldview, not the clients’. Whatever solution we may think is best is going to be best for us, not the client.
- Even if we have similar experiences, values and worldviews as our clients, we still don’t have as much information about the problem as the client does. Remember, clients are the experts on their own lives. So we still aren’t going to be able to come up with a good solution.
- Even if it were possible, giving clients the answers is really not the best way to help them. As my supervisor used to say, “Do you want your clients to rent or own their solutions?” If we don’t help the clients develop the skills to solve their own issues, then we are fostering dependency.
OK, so we can’t tell clients what to do. So, how do we help them decide?
Well, first, we need to make sure we understand their issue or dilemma. This is done by employing good listening and reflecting skills, which you will learn or have already learned in your counseling program. Once you understand the problem, from the client’s point of view, you are ready to proceed to the next step.
Next, help the client brainstorm and come up with possible solutions. It is important that most, of not all, of the possible solutions come directly from the client. In this step, we are not evaluating the solutions, we are just being as creative as possible so that we can capture all of the alternatives. Once we have a list of the possibilities, we can move on to the next step.
Next, help the client evaluate the possibilities by helping them understand the negative and positive consequences of the possible choice. At this point, you may be able to immediately discard a few options if they are not feasible. For the remainder, you can help the client decide by walking them through the logical consequences of that option. For each item, ask the client to imagine that they have already taken the possible action. Then, have them do two things: 1) evaluate how they feel about it and 2) evaluate what the consequences are. Consequences can include how the decision affects the client, and how it affects family, friends, etc.
Another option is to use a pro/con list. For each option, have two columns, one for pros and one for cons. The client will then start to list the pros and cons. Next to each pro or con, have the client assign an numeric value from 1 to 10 that represents the saliency of each option, with 1 being not very salient and 10 extremely salient. Use positive numbers for pros and negative for cons. For example, if the client is listing “it would hurt my husband’s feelings” as a con, that’s probably a -9, whereas “it would hurt my neighbor’s feelings” is probably a -4. When the client finishes the list, total up the numbers in the two columns, then add those numbers together. This number represents how beneficial the choice is, with the higher numbers being more beneficial. Now, the client can easily compare the alternatives to find the best one.
You have just walked the client through the decision-making process. Not only have you helped them make a decision, but you’ve shown them how to do it. Congratulations!
Yours in the Joy of Knowledge,
Barbara LoFrisco
