Discuss assertiveness training. How would you effectively teach your client these skills by using an assertiveness training sequence?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

a. Assertiveness skills training teaches clients that they have a right to express themselves and to go after what they need.
b. This kind of training is designed to help clients deal more effectively with others and to take action on their own behalf—in other words, to assert themselves.
c. Assertiveness training has been shown to be effective even with people with serious and persistent mental health problems
d. Assertiveness Training Sequence:
1. Identify the ways assertiveness is a problem and could be bolstered for this client.
2. Discuss assertiveness and get the client’s acknowledgment of the right to be assertive.
3. Review different responding styles (passive, aggressive, assertive).
4. Identify one specific, not particularly emotionally loaded situation that causes difficulty.
5. Review all the specifics (who causes the difficulty, when does it happen, where does it happen, how is the client left feeling, and what is wanted) with a focus on behaviors, not judgments or assumptions.
6. Clarify what is wanted, getting very behaviorally specific, including consequences for what happens if the other person refuses to comply.
7. Put together an action plan.
8. Rehearse the action plan in a role play in which the client initially plays the part of the person with whom there is difficulty, with you, the counselor, doing the assertiveness routine; then reverse roles.
9. Help the client look at how body posture, voice tone, and physical proximity affect the effectiveness of the interchange.
10. Use the action plan in real life.