MAC Counseling Techniques 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When conducting a functional analysis of a client's substance use, the counselor is primarily trying to identify:
- The neurological basis for addiction
- Antecedents, behaviors, and consequences related to use (Correct answer)
- The client's family history of addiction
- Co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses
Correct answer: Antecedents, behaviors, and consequences related to use
Functional analysis (ABC analysis) examines the antecedents (triggers), behaviors (substance use), and consequences to understand what maintains the addictive behavior.
Question 2: The 'check-in/check-out' technique in group counseling for addiction serves PRIMARILY to:
- Monitor attendance and punctuality
- Provide structure and help members identify their current emotional state and focus (Correct answer)
- Allow the counselor to screen for intoxication
- Establish group rules and norms
Correct answer: Provide structure and help members identify their current emotional state and focus
Check-in/check-out provides consistent group structure, helps members become aware of and articulate their current emotional state, and ensures continuity across sessions.
Question 3: A client with stimulant use disorder reports using cocaine to cope with depression. A counselor using an integrated treatment approach would FIRST:
- Treat the depression before addressing the substance use
- Treat the substance use before addressing the depression
- Address both the depression and substance use simultaneously (Correct answer)
- Refer to separate providers for each issue
Correct answer: Address both the depression and substance use simultaneously
Integrated treatment addresses co-occurring disorders simultaneously rather than sequentially, as each condition affects the other and treating them together yields better outcomes.
Question 4: In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for addiction, 'seemingly irrelevant decisions' (SIDs) refer to:
- Treatment decisions made without client input
- Small choices that appear unrelated to substance use but gradually lead toward relapse (Correct answer)
- Decisions made while intoxicated that the client cannot recall
- Counselor decisions about treatment planning
Correct answer: Small choices that appear unrelated to substance use but gradually lead toward relapse
SIDs are a series of small, apparently unrelated decisions that progressively move a client closer to a high-risk situation, often without conscious awareness of the pattern.
Question 5: Which approach involves teaching clients to observe urges as temporary waves that rise and fall, without acting on them?
- Thought stopping
- Urge surfing (Correct answer)
- Response prevention
- Aversion therapy
Correct answer: Urge surfing
Urge surfing, developed by Alan Marlatt, teaches clients to ride out cravings like waves without giving in, recognizing that urges naturally peak and subside.
Question 6: A counselor uses role-playing to help a client practice refusing offers of drugs at a party. This technique is BEST described as:
- Behavioral rehearsal for social skills training (Correct answer)
- Psychodrama
- Systematic desensitization
- Aversion therapy
Correct answer: Behavioral rehearsal for social skills training
Behavioral rehearsal within social skills training allows clients to practice and refine refusal skills and other interpersonal strategies in a safe therapeutic environment before applying them in real situations.
Question 7: The 'columbian technique' or examining evidence for and against a belief is a component of which therapeutic approach?
- Motivational Interviewing
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Correct answer)
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
- Psychodynamic therapy
Correct answer: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Examining evidence for and against automatic thoughts or core beliefs is a fundamental cognitive restructuring technique within CBT.
MAC Counseling Techniques 3
When conducting a functional analysis of a client's substance use, the counselor is primarily trying to identify: