Basic Skills for Counselling (Clarification)

Because most messages are expressed from the speaker's internal frame of reference, they may seem vague or confusing to the listener. Messages that are particularly likely to be confusing are those that include inclusive terms such as: they and  them. Ambiguous phrases (you know) or words with a double meaning (stoned, trip) may be also confusing. When you aren't sure of the meaning of a message, it is helpful to clarify it. A clarification asks the client to elaborate on "a vague, ambiguous or implied statement." The request for clarification is usually expressed as a question and may begin with phrases such as "Are you saying this" or "Could you try to describe that" or "Can you clarify that".

Purpose of Clarification:

Clarification is usually used to confirm the accuracy of your perceptions about the message. Clarification is appropriate whenever you aren't sure whether you understand the client's message and you need more elaboration. The second purpose is to check out what you heard of the client's message. Particularly in the beginning stages of helping process, it is important to verify client message instead of jumping in to conclusions.
This example may help you see the value of clarification response:

Client: Sometimes I just want to get away from it all. 
Helper: It sounds like you have to split and be on your own. 
Client: No, it's not that. I don't want to be alone. It's just that I wish I could get out from under all this work I have to do. 

In this example, the helper drew a quick conclusion about the initial client message that turned out to be inaccurate. The session might have gone more smoothly if the helper had requested clarification before assuming something about the client, as in this example:


Client: Sometimes I just want to get away from it all. 

Helper: Could you describe for me what you mean by "getting away from it all"?

Client: Well, I just have so much work to do. I'm always feeling behind and overloaded. I'de like to get out from under that miserable feeling. 

You can see how it helped both persons to establish exactly what was being said and felt. None of them had to rely on assumptions and inferences that were not explored and confirmed.

Clarification Steps:

There are four steps involved in clarification responses:
1. Identify the content of the client's verbal and non-verbal messages : What has the client told me?
2. Identify any vague or confusing part of the message that you need to check out for accuracy.
3. Decide on an appropriate beginning, or sentence stem, for your clarification such as: Could you describe, Could you clarify, Are you saying ... 
In addition use your voice to deliver the clarification as a question.
4. Remember to assess the effectiveness of your clarification by listening to and observing the client's response. If the client starts to elaborate on the ambiguous part, you'll know that your clarification was useful.

Paraphrasing and Reflections are two other basic skills that we will go through them in later posts.