SOWK 443 – Interviewing & Counseling Skills
Dialogue Assignment – Assignment #1
In this assignment you are to write down the exact dialogue of an imaginary helping interview between yourself (as the worker) and a client. You will develop a problem situation and then write both your client and helper spoken parts. The helper’s part should reflect your version of what a good helper would say; this should be what you cu
ently consider to be a good, helpful interview without it being a miracle-cure.
The purpose of this task is to develop an interview that you will be analyzing later. In the process, you are expected to demonstrate your ability to understand and simulate the problems and feeling of an imaginary client and to develop helpful worker responses.
The dialogue must include at least 15 helper ve
al comments. These comments should be empathetic and prompting, using whatever skills you think are appropriate. Conclude the paper with an analysis of the worker’s performance.
Please read & follow these instructions carefully!
Type the interview dialogue in the following format (not as a paragraph, more as a script):
Social Worker: “Hello, I’m … “
Client: “I’m …”
Social Worker: “What
ings you here…” [End of introductory chat]
Client: “I have a problem with my…”
SW: “With your…” [Begin counting worker’s comments to get to 15]
C: “It doesn’t seem to…”
There are three parts to this assignment:
1) Imagine a worker-client situation and then write a
ief paragraph describing the setting and the client’s presenting problem. The problem should be one that requires an interpersonal helping process.
2) Write the exact worker-client dialogue, including at least 15 worker responses. You need not “solve” the client’s problem in this session nor do you even have to conclude the interview if it would have gone on beyond the required number of responses (you can just let it stop without a resolution).
3) Write a paragraph analyzing the quality of the worker responses. Avoid vague generalities and focus on the skills that the worker used and the values they showed. You should be writing primarily positive statements – if your worker did not do a good job, then make sure you reflect on that in the analysis.
*This assignment must be typed (double spaced) and submitted in the drop box in d2l.