SAC Counseling Theories & Techniques 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Motivational Interviewing, which technique involves reflecting back an amplified or exaggerated version of what the client said to highlight ambivalence?
- Affirmation
- Amplified reflection (Correct answer)
- Double-sided reflection
- Summarizing
Correct answer: Amplified reflection
An amplified reflection overstates the client's resistance or concern to prompt the client to argue the other side, eliciting change talk.
Question 2: A student assistance counselor uses the empty chair technique to help a student process unresolved feelings about a deceased parent. This technique originates from which theoretical orientation?
- Adlerian therapy
- Gestalt therapy (Correct answer)
- Reality therapy
- Solution-focused therapy
Correct answer: Gestalt therapy
The empty chair technique is a hallmark of Gestalt therapy, used to help clients work through unfinished business with significant others.
Question 3: Which concept in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) refers to demanding that things must be a certain way, often expressed as 'should,' 'must,' or 'ought'?
- Cognitive distortion
- Musturbation (Correct answer)
- Negative automatic thought
- Schema
Correct answer: Musturbation
Albert Ellis coined 'musturbation' to describe irrational demands people place on themselves, others, and the world that lead to emotional disturbance.
Question 4: In the context of school-based counseling, a SAC counselor practicing structural family therapy would primarily focus on:
- Changing unconscious family narratives
- Exploring intergenerational trauma patterns
- Modifying family subsystems and hierarchies (Correct answer)
- Tracking circular patterns of communication
Correct answer: Modifying family subsystems and hierarchies
Structural family therapy, developed by Minuchin, targets family organization by restructuring subsystems, boundaries, and hierarchies to improve functioning.
Question 5: A counselor avoids giving a student direct advice and instead uses open-ended questions to help the student discover their own solutions. This approach is most consistent with:
- Behavioral counseling
- Directive counseling
- Non-directive (person-centered) counseling (Correct answer)
- Psychoanalytic counseling
Correct answer: Non-directive (person-centered) counseling
Carl Rogers' person-centered (non-directive) approach trusts clients to find their own solutions when provided with a facilitative therapeutic environment.
Question 6: Which behavioral technique involves having a client approach a feared stimulus gradually, starting with the least anxiety-provoking situation?
- Flooding
- Implosion
- Systematic desensitization (Correct answer)
- Token economy
Correct answer: Systematic desensitization
Systematic desensitization, developed by Wolpe, pairs progressive muscle relaxation with gradual exposure to a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Question 7: In Adlerian therapy, the concept of 'social interest' (Gemeinschaftsgefühl) refers to:
- A client's awareness of social media influences on behavior
- A person's sense of belonging and contribution to the community (Correct answer)
- The counselor's obligation to network with community agencies
- The student's ability to navigate peer relationships
Correct answer: A person's sense of belonging and contribution to the community
Alfred Adler believed that psychological health is measured by one's degree of social interest — the innate potential to contribute to and connect with the community.
SAC Counseling Theories & Techniques 2
In Motivational Interviewing, which technique involves reflecting back an amplified or exaggerated version of what the client said to highlight ambivalence?