LMHC - Licensed Mental Health Counselor Counseling Skills and Interventions Questions and Answers

Question 1

A counselor is working with a client who is highly ambivalent about changing their substance use behavior.
The counselor decides to use Motivational Interviewing.
Which set of techniques is most central to this approach?

Accepted Answer

Open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summaries (OARS)

Answer

Confrontation, clarification, and interpretation

Answer

Psychoeducation, skills training, and modeling

Answer

Free association, dream analysis, and analysis of transference

Question 2

A client presents with a phobia of spiders, which is significantly impacting their ability to enjoy outdoor activities. The counselor, using a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) framework, develops a treatment plan that involves creating a list of feared situations, ranking them from least to most anxiety-provoking, and then systematically confronting them. This specific intervention is known as:

Accepted Answer

Systematic desensitization

Answer

Flooding

Answer

Cognitive restructuring

Answer

Behavioral activation

Question 3

During a session, a counselor asks their client, 'Suppose that tonight, while you are asleep, a miracle happens and the problem that brought you here is solved. When you wake up tomorrow morning, what will be different that will tell you a miracle has happened?' This question is a hallmark of which therapeutic approach?

Accepted Answer

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

Answer

Gestalt Therapy

Answer

Narrative Therapy

Answer

Existential Therapy

Question 4

A counselor is working with a couple who are stuck in a pattern of escalating arguments. The counselor, using an approach from Strategic Family Therapy, instructs them to go home and schedule a specific time each day to practice arguing for 10 minutes. This technique is an example of:

Accepted Answer

Paradoxical intention

Answer

Circular questioning

Answer

Reframing

Answer

Structural mapping

Question 5

Which of the following interventions is a primary technique used in Gestalt Therapy to help clients resolve 'unfinished business' and explore internal conflicts?

Accepted Answer

The empty chair technique

Answer

Thought stopping

Answer

Socratic questioning

Answer

Contingency management

Question 6

A client repeatedly expresses the belief, 'If I don't get a perfect score on this exam, I am a total failure.' A counselor using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy would identify this as a cognitive distortion and would likely use which intervention to challenge this belief?

Accepted Answer

Cognitive restructuring

Answer

Psychoeducation

Answer

Relaxation training

Answer

Role-playing

A counselor is working with a client who is highly ambivalent about changing their substance use behavior.The counselor decides to use Motivational Interviewing.Which set of techniques is most central to this approach?

A counselor is working with a client who is highly ambivalent about changing their substance use behavior.
The counselor decides to use Motivational Interviewing.
Which set of techniques is most central to this approach?