3.3.
Measure: Simplified Change Interview: Brief Instructions and Interview
Schedule
General Approach. Facilitate
an empathic exploration of the client’s experience of therapy. For each topic listed, use open-ended
questions plus empathic understanding responses to help the client elaborate on
his/her experiences. Use the “anything else” probe (e.g., "Are there any
other changes that you have noticed?") in a nondemanding way until the
client runs out of things to say.
This task should take 20-30 minutes.
Topics:
1. Current medications (include dose, how long, last
adjustment, herbal remedies)
2. What therapy has been like so far. (How it has felt to be in therapy.)
3. Any changes noticed since therapy started. (e.g., doing, feeling, or thinking
things differently from before; ideas about self or others; changes brought to
client’s attention by others; if client really has trouble, you can show
him/her first and last PQ, ask about 2+ point discrepancies)
•What
it was like before compared to how it is now (explore “then” vs. “now”)
•What might have caused this change (things both outside of
therapy and in therapy)
4. Anything that has changed for the worse since therapy
started.
5. Ask if the client has been surprised by any of the
changes.
6. Things that haven’t changed since therapy started, even
though the client wishes they had.
7. Ask about helpful aspects of your therapy so far
(encourage client to give examples; may include general aspects, specific
events)
8. Things about therapy that might have been hindering,
unhelpful, negative or disappointing (may include general aspects, specific
events)
9. Things about therapy that were difficult or painful
but still OK or perhaps helpful.
10. Anything
been missing from therapy. Suggestions
for improving therapy.
Note. For more information see Elliott,
Slatick, & Urman, 2001; full interview schedule available at:
http://experiential-researchers.org/instruments/elliott/changei.html
Materials designed to
accompany the book Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy: The
Process-Experiential Approach to Change from APA Books.
©2003 Robert Elliott, Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, and Leslie Greenberg
http://www.process-experiential.org/learning