Communication Techniques in Mental Health

Working in the mental health field requires all employees to be schooled in effective communication skills to help guide their patients through a useful treatment plan. Communication plays a major role in building a therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist. Therapists act as a role model for their patients, demonstrating healthy communication patterns and providing them with unconditional positive regard.

Active Listening

• Active listening requires therapists to talk less and listen more.

  When demonstrating active listening skills, it is imperative that the therapist does not look distracted or bored with the interaction. Active listening means that the therapist listens to the client's storyline, and repeats back to her what he thinks he heard. This allows the client to feel that the therapist understands her predicament and encourages her to delve deeper into the dialogue.

  Active listening also involves the therapist presenting himself with an open position. The therapist should not cross his arms or face away from the client as this can be seen as a barrier toward the conversation. Gently nodding his head while looking at the client when she is speaking also makes her feel heard and understood.

Reflecting Feelings

• Reflecting a client's thoughts and feelings can help build a therapeutic rapport.

  Reflecting feelings is essential when working with a mentally ill patient as it allows him to determine that you have understood what he is saying and that you are engaged in the conversation. Like active listening, reflecting a client's feelings can also ensure that you have heard him correctly; this deepens the level of communication. Clients that are engaged in therapy need to have their feelings verified or heard. This helps provide them with a therapeutic environment where they can begin safely making changes to their thoughts and behaviors.

Questioning

• Use different questioning techniques to help gather information from a client.

  There are many ways to question a client that is suffering from a mental health disorder. Open-ended and close-ended questions are important to keep in mind during an individual session. Open-ended questions are questions that allow the client to provide you with an abundance of information. These questions typically begin with the words "how," "why" and "when,"' and usually cannot be answered with one word.

  Close-ended questions are asked using words such as "'are," "do" and "can," and can be answered in a yes or no fashion. Selecting the appropriate questioning style can foster a therapeutic rapport by gathering relevant information on the matter being discussed.

Inconsistencies and Contradictions

• Gently pointing out inconsistencies can help keep a client on track.

  Some mental health clients come to therapy suffering from flawed thinking patterns or poor coping mechanisms. When communicating with clients, it is essential for the therapist to gently point out inconsistencies and contradictions in the client's storyline or thought process. Inconsistencies can occur during verbal and non-verbal communications.

  Inconsistencies or contradictions occur when a client's emotion does not match their story line. For example, if a client is nervously smiling when discussing the death of a loved one, there is a large inconsistency. Gently pointing this out to a client can help them begin to understand blocked or repressed emotions and help them work through the grieving process.