Following examples of attending behavior in counseling:
- Refer to the speaker by name.
- Use encouraging statements, i.e. “Uh huh,” “Go on,” “I’m listening”
- Posture toward the speaker.
- Maintain appropriate eye contact.
- Display facial expressions that express interest and concern.
- Nod head to convey affirmation
What is attending in counselling?
Attending is a counselling skill. Being attentive means the counsellor is giving the client their full focus, paying attention to what the client is saying, doing, the tone of voice used and body language. Attending is the first skill a trainee counsellor learns. It is the base that other skills can be built on and used.
What is an example of attending behavior in a therapist?
For example, exhibiting an open, interested posture, maintaining eye contact, and using an interested expression. Proper attending behaviors, along with active listening skills, are considered cornerstones of a therapist ATTENDING BEHAVIOR: "The therapist was showing attending behavior when he or she nodded as the client spoke.".
What are the Verbal Listening skills in attending behavior in counseling?
Verbal listening skills in attending behavior in counseling involve various verbal cues that show the client that the counselor is concerned towards the client and is listening towards the client. The verbal cues encourage the client in the counseling process to share more details and appreciate the client to share his true thoughts and feelings.
What are the attendance skills in counseling?
Responding To the client during the counseling sessions is another attending skill that is of immense importance. Responding ensures to the client that the client is being heard and paid attention to. Responding involves providing active feedback through verbal and nonverbal communication.

What are the 4 attending behaviors?
Attending behaviors (eye contact, vocal cadence and tone, verbal track- ing, body language) and listening skills (asking questions, observing, guiding discussion, reflecting feelings) are two core microskills that advisors can practice.
What are attending behaviors?
“Attending” Behaviors are verbal and non-verbal behaviors displayed by the listener that communicate that the listener is paying attention to and is interested in the speaker's message. Examples: Refer to the speaker by name. Use encouraging statements, i.e. “Uh huh,” “Go on,” “I'm listening” Posture toward the speaker.
What are the 5 attending skills?
These are the skills of sophisticated listening and caring: attending behavior, questioning, paraphrasing, including the encourage and restatement, reflection of feeling, and summarization. These are all essential skills of the helping relationship.
Why attending behaviors are important?
Attending is the first skill a trainee counsellor learns. It is the base that other skills can be built on and used. Good attending will show the client that they are respected and encourage them to talk about their thoughts and feelings. It also shows they are being listened to and taken seriously.
What is the meaning of attending skills?
Definition of Attending Skills. Attending is a skill that involves the genetic counselor observing client verbal and nonverbal behaviors as one way of understanding what clients are experiencing, and displaying effective nonverbal behaviors to clients during genetic counseling sessions.
How can I improve my attending skills?
9 Strategies to Increase Attention and On-Task BehaviorDetermine Their Baseline.Get To Know Your Learner.Provide Movement Opportunities.Provide Environmental Supports.Break down big tasks into smaller tasks.Create a Checklist.Use a Timer.Offer Rewards.More items...•
What are attending skills mental health?
Attending is the behavioural aspect of building rapport. When a counsellor first meets with a client, they must indicate to the client that they are interested in listening to them and helping them. Through attending, the counsellor is able to encourage the client to talk and open up about their issues.
What are the 7 principles of counseling?
Basic principles are: . Principle of acceptance, Principle of communication, Principle of non judgmental attitude, Principle of empathy, Principle of confidentiality, Principle of individuality, Principle of non-emotional involvement, and Principle of purposeful expression of feelings.
What are the 6 methods of counseling?
Fortunately, almost all of the many individual theoretical models of counseling fall into one or more of six major theoretical categories: humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, psychoanalytic, constructionist and systemic.
What does attending mean in psychology?
By. n. the act of directing and sustaining attention to a person, location, object, or event. This is presumed to increase processing speed as well as making information more prominent in conscious awareness.
How do you welcome a client in counselling?
In greeting the client, I make clear I'm glad to see him or her: I smile, look them in the eye and say something such as "Good to see you again, Mary," and then a bit of small talk. For example, if during the previous session, s/he had mentioned her dog Woofie," I might ask, "How's Woofie doing?"
What is attending skills in communication?
Attending is the act of truly focusing on the other person. It involves consciously making ourselves aware of what the other person is saying and of what they are trying to communicate to us.
What is attending in the listening process?
Attending is the process of accurately identifying and interpreting particular sounds we hear as words. The sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in context. Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.
What is nonverbal attending?
Nonverbal attending means giving someone your full attention without speaking. Keep your body open to the other person. Try to be relaxed, and lean forward a bit if you're sitting. Maintain eye contact without looking like you are staring.
What are observation skills in counseling?
Observation skills allow you to take note of both the verbal, and what is sometimes more important in counselling, is the non-verbal information that your patient/client portrays to you....Visual/eye contact.Vocal Qualities.Verbal Tracking.Body Language.
What are counselling Microskills?
Counselling Microskills are specific skills a counsellor can use to enhance their communication with clients. These skills enable a counsellor to effectively build a working alliance and engage clients in discussion that is both helpful and meaningful.
Why is attending important in counselling?
Smaby and Maddux (2011) suggest that attending is a form of social proofing, allowing the client (or the helpee) to assess if the person in front of them is ready and able to help them. “After all, helpees do not know you as well as your friends and acquaintances do.
How to attend a counselling session?
To begin and maintain attendance in counselling, a counsellor must first welcome the client warmly, making him/her feel comfortable in the counselling environment. This will make the client feel more relaxed about disclosing personal information about their emotions, feelings and thoughts.
What does it mean to be attentive in counseling?
Attending in Counselling. Attending is a counselling skill. Being attentive means the counsellor is giving the client their full focus, paying attention to what the client is saying, doing, the tone of voice used and body language.
How to show a counsellor is respectful?
By maintaining eye contact with the client, a counsellor shows they value what the client has to say. Looking at the client, as they speak, also shows the counsellor is respectful. A counsellor should also be aware of the tone of their voice during the time in the client’s presence. Slowing down speech will make the client feel more relaxed ...
What is the first skill a trainee counsellor learns?
Attending is the first skill a trainee counsellor learns. It is the base that other skills can be built on and used.
What does attending do for a client?
Good attending will show the client that they are respected and encourage them to talk about their thoughts and feelings. It also shows they are being listened to and taken seriously. There are several key elements in attending. These are:
How to invite someone to talk about themselves?
Body language: Be considerate of your posture. Being relaxed is a great way to invite someone to talk about themselves! Leaning slightly forward in the chair demonstrates that you are giving your full attention, actively listening to what your client is saying. Gestures: You communicate so much in your body movements.
What is attending behavior in counseling?
Any action taken by a person while carefully listening to and watching a speaker, such as making eye contact and adopting an open, engaged posture. Active listening and supportive attending behaviours are deemed to be the main pillars of a therapist’s or counselor’s overall capacity.
When a counsellor meets with a client for the first time, must they express an interest in listening to them?
When a counsellor meets with a client for the first time, they must express an interest in listening to them and assisting them .
What is the importance of basic attending skills during the session?
Simple attending skills are critical throughout the session in order to obtain a better understanding of the client’s internal experience of the crisis. The client’s thoughts and emotions about his situation should be the focal point.
What are non verbal components?
Non Verbal Components. Vocal quality: The tone and inflections of your voice are termed vocal quality not the substance of what you say . In certain cases, pacing would be reasonable and efficient; this is referred to as matching the client’s vocal qualities. You can also guide the client with your vocal abilities.
What is attending skill?
This attending skill requires using words to show the client that you’re paying attention to whatever he or she says. It entails rephrasing or summarising the client’s expressed thoughts.
What is the purpose of counselor exchanges?
The counselor’s exchanges with the client are, in essence, a significant instrument in the therapeutic relationship. Attending – physically orienting oneself to the patient to demonstrate that one is aware of the patient and that the client has your complete, uninterrupted attention and also that you care. Skill.
How to guide a client?
You can also guide the client with your vocal abilities. Body language: Leaning subtly toward the client, keeping a comfortable yet attentive stance, mirroring, and other positive body language approaches are common. Trying to match the client’s facial expressions and bodily posture is known as mirroring.
What are the attending skills in counseling?
Attending skills in counseling are the various interventions used by counselors to show the client that they are important to the counselor and they are being heard and accepted with all the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of their life and personality.
What is the importance of responding to a client during counseling?
Responding ensures to the client that the client is being heard and paid attention to.
What is the skill of asking questions in counseling?
Questioning the client about the information being shared is another attending skill used in counseling. Asking a question at the right time and place during the counseling session often helps the counselor in case formulation.
What is rephrasing in counseling?
Rephrasing or restating is an attending skill of the counselor that is based on rephrasing a client’s verbatim or a statement of the client to gain a deeper understanding about the client’s content and the purpose of the content.
Why is it important to clarify attending skills?
Clarification of attending skills prevents the counselor from developing any misunderstandings or having any mistaken assumptions about the client. Clarification also enables the counselor to understand the client’s expectation from the counseling sessions.
What is the posture of a counselor?
The counselor himself maintains a body posture that includes sitting square with the client, leaning forward on the chair, maintaining eye contact with the client and remaining relaxed on whatever the client shares and however the client behaves in the session without getting panicked upon the client’s manipulation unless there is a threat of danger to life or physical danger that must be dealt with patient and expertise.
Why do counselors ask open ended questions?
The open ended questions are used to probe the client about certain areas or life spheres. Open-ended questions also induce a food for thought in the client’s mind.
What is attending behavior in counseling?
Any action taken by a person while carefully listening to and watching a speaker, such as making eye contact and adopting an open, engaged posture. Active listening and supportive attending behaviours are deemed to be the main pillars of a therapist’s or counselor’s overall capacity.
What is the importance of basic attending skills during the session?
Simple attending skills are critical throughout the session in order to obtain a better understanding of the client’s internal experience of the crisis. The client’s thoughts and emotions about his situation should be the focal point.
What is the difference between directive and nondirective counseling?
When you provide cognitive behavioural therapy, for instance, you are providing the client guidance for dealing with the problem as well as assisting them in practising particular strategies. On the other hand, the client takes the lead in non-directive counselling.
What is attending skill?
This attending skill requires using words to show the client that you’re paying attention to whatever he or she says. It entails rephrasing or summarising the client’s expressed thoughts.
What is the importance of attending skills?
Ivey (1971) coined the term “ basic attending skills ” to explain a collection of verbal and nonverbal behaviours that facilitate effective listening and communication. These skills enable us to remain connected to our clients’ experiences and show them that we are more interested in them than we are in ourselves. You can communicate with your clients and effectively listen to them if you have good attending and listening skills. Empathy, or the capacity to be open to and make sense of the world of another human being, requires these skills.
How much of the factors that influence whether or not a session is successful are influenced by the relationship with a?
We now understand that the relationship with a client accounts for 30% of the factors that influence whether or not a session is successful.
What is mirroring in psychology?
Leaning subtly toward the client, keeping a comfortable yet attentive stance, mirroring, and other positive body language approaches are common. Trying to match the client’s facial expressions and bodily posture is known as mirroring.
What are some techniques that counselors use to help clients?
Counselors combine several techniques to be effective with clients, including challenging and reflecting feelings.
What is attending and listening?
Attending and listening are vital skills for forming a helpful ongoing dialogue between the therapist and client and are often referred to as microskills (Tan et al., 2015).
What is a good counseling relationship?
Most therapists and counselors would agree that a good counseling relationship is fundamental to being effective with clients. Such alliances build on several counselor-offered qualities, core conditions, and skills, including “empathic understanding, respect and acceptance for clients’ current states of being, and congruence or genuineness” (Nelson-Jones, 2014, p. 9).
Why is it important to have effective counseling skills?
Effective counseling skills are vital in forming a strong alliance between the client and therapist.
What should therapists reflect on?
Therapists, particularly students and trainees, should regularly reflect on their skill set and recognize opportunities for development and growth.
Why is listening important?
Listening relates to the importance of understanding the client’s narrative. Empathy is key to good listening. Being capable of seeing the world from the client’s perspective can create a growth-promoting therapeutic environment.
Do psychologists recognize the importance of counseling?
While psychological practitioners recognize the importance of the counseling relationship, they also agree on the need for interventions using skills directed by their theoretical orientation.
