LPCC Patient Communication Skills 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which questioning style is MOST likely to elicit a detailed narrative from a client?
- Closed-ended questions
- Leading questions
- Open-ended questions (Correct answer)
- Funnel questions starting broad then narrowing
Correct answer: Open-ended questions
Open-ended questions allow clients to respond in their own words and promote rich, self-directed disclosure.
Question 2: A counselor summarizes the client's session content at the end of the hour. The PRIMARY purpose of this closing summary is to:
- Document the session for billing purposes
- Demonstrate the counselor's recall ability
- Consolidate themes and facilitate closure before the next session (Correct answer)
- Assess whether the client understood the counselor's interpretations
Correct answer: Consolidate themes and facilitate closure before the next session
A closing summary helps the client integrate the session's content and provides a meaningful transition to ending.
Question 3: When a client asks, 'Do you think I should leave my husband?' the most therapeutically appropriate response is to:
- Give an honest personal opinion to model authenticity
- Redirect the question back to explore what the client thinks and feels (Correct answer)
- Refuse to engage with the question at all
- Recommend couples counseling immediately
Correct answer: Redirect the question back to explore what the client thinks and feels
Redirecting restores agency to the client and avoids fostering dependence on the counselor's judgment for major life decisions.
Question 4: A Latino male client rarely makes eye contact during sessions. The counselor should FIRST:
- Address the avoidance as a sign of shame
- Consider whether limited eye contact is culturally normative for this client (Correct answer)
- Ask the client directly why he avoids eye contact
- Note the behavior as a possible indicator of depression
Correct answer: Consider whether limited eye contact is culturally normative for this client
In many Latino cultural contexts, reduced direct eye contact with authority figures is a sign of respect, not avoidance or shame.
Question 5: Immediacy in counseling refers to the counselor's ability to:
- Respond quickly to crisis calls
- Discuss what is happening in the therapeutic relationship in the moment (Correct answer)
- Offer same-day appointments
- Immediately validate any emotion the client expresses
Correct answer: Discuss what is happening in the therapeutic relationship in the moment
Immediacy involves openly discussing the here-and-now dynamics of the counselor–client relationship to deepen insight.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of a minimal encourager?
- 'Tell me more about how that made you feel.'
- 'Mm-hmm.' (Correct answer)
- 'So what you are saying is that you felt dismissed.'
- 'I understand completely what you mean.'
Correct answer: 'Mm-hmm.'
Minimal encouragers are brief verbal or nonverbal signals (e.g., 'mm-hmm,' nodding) that communicate attention without interrupting the client's flow.
Question 7: A counselor's self-disclosure is MOST appropriate when it:
- Shifts focus from the client to the counselor's experience
- Is used sparingly and serves the client's therapeutic goals (Correct answer)
- Demonstrates that the counselor has lived through similar trauma
- Builds personal rapport unrelated to the presenting concern
Correct answer: Is used sparingly and serves the client's therapeutic goals
Appropriate self-disclosure is intentional, brief, and clearly in service of the client rather than the counselor's need to be known.
LPCC Patient Communication Skills 3
Which questioning style is MOST likely to elicit a detailed narrative from a client?