CT Counseling Techniques & Interventions 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A bereaved parent refuses to discuss their child's death and insists the counselor talk about something else. Which technique best addresses this resistance?
- Immediately redirect to the avoided topic
- Use motivational interviewing to explore ambivalence about grief (Correct answer)
- Terminate the session until the client is ready
- Assign homework about the deceased child
Correct answer: Use motivational interviewing to explore ambivalence about grief
Motivational interviewing explores ambivalence without confrontation, respecting the client's pace while gently building readiness to engage.
Question 2: Which intervention is most appropriate when working with a client experiencing complicated grief who also has a history of trauma?
- Begin immediately with grief-focused narrative therapy
- Use a trauma-informed approach before grief-specific processing (Correct answer)
- Refer exclusively to a trauma specialist
- Avoid discussing the death until trauma is fully resolved
Correct answer: Use a trauma-informed approach before grief-specific processing
Trauma-informed care establishes safety and stabilization before engaging grief processing to prevent retraumatization.
Question 3: A widower in his 70s shows signs of prolonged grief disorder six months post-loss. Which validated treatment is most indicated?
- Interpersonal therapy for depression
- Complicated grief treatment (CGT) developed by Shear and colleagues (Correct answer)
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Exposure and response prevention
Correct answer: Complicated grief treatment (CGT) developed by Shear and colleagues
Complicated Grief Treatment (CGT) is the evidence-based protocol specifically designed for prolonged grief disorder.
Question 4: When using the Dual Process Model with a bereaved client, the thanatologist oscillates between which two orientations?
- Anger and acceptance
- Loss-orientation and restoration-orientation (Correct answer)
- Denial and bargaining
- Intrusion and avoidance
Correct answer: Loss-orientation and restoration-orientation
Stroebe and Schut's Dual Process Model involves oscillating between loss-oriented coping (grieving) and restoration-oriented coping (adjusting to new life demands).
Question 5: Which technique involves the bereaved client writing an unsent letter to their deceased loved one to facilitate continued bonds?
- Empty chair technique
- Correspondence therapy (Correct answer)
- Narrative restructuring
- Somatic tracking
Correct answer: Correspondence therapy
Correspondence therapy uses unsent letters to help clients express unfinished business and maintain continuing bonds with the deceased.
Question 6: A client describes their grief as a physical weight on their chest. Which therapeutic approach would most directly use this somatic metaphor?
- Cognitive restructuring
- Somatic experiencing or body-centered therapy (Correct answer)
- Psychoeducation about grief stages
- Behavioral activation
Correct answer: Somatic experiencing or body-centered therapy
Somatic experiencing and body-centered approaches work directly with physical sensations and metaphors to process grief stored in the body.
Question 7: In group grief counseling, which phenomenon occurs when one member's expression of emotion facilitates emotional release in other members?
- Transference
- Universality
- Emotional contagion or vicarious catharsis (Correct answer)
- Cohesion
Correct answer: Emotional contagion or vicarious catharsis
Vicarious catharsis or emotional contagion occurs when one group member's emotional expression triggers emotional processing in others.
CT Counseling Techniques & Interventions 2
A bereaved parent refuses to discuss their child's death and insists the counselor talk about something else.
Which technique best addresses this resistance?