Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills Term Paper

Knapp focuses on teaching by example, by providing dialogue boxes clinicians can use to practice their therapeutic skills development on patients. Knapp also focuses on teaching counselors how to balance emotional dynamics that often come into play in a therapeutic setting. These include for example, transference of feeling, self-awareness and the "inevitable termination of the client/counselor relationship" (Knapp, 2007: 29).

Most helpful in this book is a live transcription of sessions with clients that help counselors learn how to engage in short-term therapeutic communication and transcripts that teach counselors how to terminate relationships. Students working at the graduate level and professionals working in social services or counseling can all benefit by the tools presented in this easy-to-use guidebook.

Counselors and teachers can also use this book as a self-help tool to help them overcome their own challenges when attempting to establish open-minded and effective communication with children and adults. I found most helpful the practice skills offered in this guide, including skills that help counselors "cope with silence" (p. 57) and skills and practice sessions that help teach the counselor to respect boundaries that exist between the patient, provider and others. This is a very well-written and comprehensive guide for any graduate student or clinician looking for a simple way to incorporate therapeutic communication into their practice. By reading this book one will easily learn how to identify underlying problems, summarize interactions and clarify suggestions or teachings when offered to patients.

Reference:

Knapp, H. (2007). Therapeutic Communication:…