Considerations for Interactions with Special Clients/Families

When interacting with an anxious client:

• Recognize client's decreased ability to focus on and respond to multiple stimuli.
• Maintain quiet, calm environment.
• Keep messages simple, concrete, and brief.
• Repeat messages often.
• Minimize need for extensive decision making.
• Monitor anxiety level, using verbal and nonverbal cues.

When interacting with an angry or potentially violent client:

• Use careful, unhurried, deliberate body movements.
• Provide an open, nonthreatening environment.
• Clear area of anger-provoking stimuli (e.g., individuals, objects).
• Maintain a nonthreatening demeanor, using open body language, soft voice tones, and so forth.

When interacting with a depressed client:

• Allow additional time for interactions.
• Emphasize use of physical attending.
• Avoid giving client time-limited tasks due to slowed reflexes.
• Monitor closely for cues of self-destructive tendencies.
• Keep messages simple, concrete, and brief.
• Minimize need for extensive decision making.

When interacting with a client exhibiting denial:

• Use direct questions to determine the situation triggering use of coping mechanism.
• Do not avoid the reality of the situation, but allow client to maintain denial defense; it often serves a protective function.
• Recognize that denial may be the first of a series of crisis phases, to be followed by phases of increased tension, disorganization, attempts to reorganize, attempts to escape the problem, local reorganization, general reorganization, and possibly resolution.
• Be alert for cues that the phase is ending (e.g., questions from client regarding the disturbing situation).