RP Patient Communication Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A client with a trauma history becomes visibly distressed when the therapist asks about childhood. The BEST immediate response is to:
- Continue questioning to gather a complete history
- Slow down, acknowledge the distress, and ask if the client wants to pause (Correct answer)
- Redirect to a less emotional topic without acknowledgment
- Reassure the client that the past cannot hurt them now
Correct answer: Slow down, acknowledge the distress, and ask if the client wants to pause
Acknowledging distress and offering a choice to pause respects the client's autonomy and maintains therapeutic safety.
Question 2: Which communication technique involves repeating the last few words a client said to encourage elaboration?
- Summarizing
- Minimal encourager
- Trailing or mirroring (Correct answer)
- Confrontation
Correct answer: Trailing or mirroring
Trailing (mirroring) repeats the client's last words verbatim to signal attention and invite continuation.
Question 3: A therapist notices a client consistently minimizes their accomplishments. The most appropriate therapeutic communication response is:
- Praise the client effusively to counteract the pattern
- Gently point out the pattern and explore its origins collaboratively (Correct answer)
- Ignore it to avoid reinforcing the behavior
- Challenge the client to list ten achievements immediately
Correct answer: Gently point out the pattern and explore its origins collaboratively
Gently naming patterns and collaboratively exploring them fosters insight without shaming the client.
Question 4: When using psychoeducation in session, the therapist should PRIMARILY:
- Deliver information in a lecture format to maximize efficiency
- Tailor the information to the client's literacy level and check for understanding (Correct answer)
- Provide written handouts and move on without discussion
- Use clinical terminology to build the client's vocabulary
Correct answer: Tailor the information to the client's literacy level and check for understanding
Effective psychoeducation is adapted to the client's level and confirmed through teach-back or dialogue.
Question 5: A client states, 'I know you can't tell me what to do, but what would you do in my situation?' The therapist's BEST response is:
- Share personal advice to model healthy decision-making
- Decline and redirect by exploring the client's own values and options (Correct answer)
- Remain silent to avoid influencing the client
- Remind the client of the therapist's professional boundaries harshly
Correct answer: Decline and redirect by exploring the client's own values and options
Redirecting to the client's own values preserves autonomy and keeps the therapeutic focus on self-discovery.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the concept of 'unconditional positive regard' in therapeutic communication?
- Agreeing with everything the client says
- Accepting the client as a person regardless of their behaviors or disclosures (Correct answer)
- Praising the client at the end of every session
- Avoiding confrontation to maintain rapport
Correct answer: Accepting the client as a person regardless of their behaviors or disclosures
Unconditional positive regard (Rogers) means valuing the client's worth without conditionality, separate from approving every action.
Question 7: During a session, a client who is Deaf communicates via ASL interpreter. The therapist should direct eye contact and communication:
- Toward the interpreter, since they relay all messages
- Toward the client, treating the interpreter as a communication conduit (Correct answer)
- Equally between client and interpreter to show respect to both
- Away from both to avoid confusion about who is speaking
Correct answer: Toward the client, treating the interpreter as a communication conduit
Best practice is to maintain eye contact and direct speech to the Deaf client; the interpreter facilitates language access, not the relationship.
RP Patient Communication Skills 2
A client with a trauma history becomes visibly distressed when the therapist asks about childhood.
The BEST immediate response is to: