Interviewing

I was doing some reading on Personality Disorders this week and I came across some interesting things related to interviewing clients with potential PDs that I wanted to share. I do a lot of interviewing during psychosocial assessments at my internship site and knowing what to look for can really help foster insight on the part of the clinician that helps aid in the diagnostic process.

According to Woo and Keating (2008) the presence of a personality disorder can be detected based on not only the content of what the person is saying but also how they react to the clinician on an interpersonal level as well as their nonverbal behavior (Woo & Keating, 2008). How a client is responding to you is often very telling in regard to how they react to other people in their life, which can provide a great perspective into what their interpersonal reactions are like, as well as their insight, judgement and coping strategies (Woo & Keating, 2008). This is helpful to be aware of to not only for diagnostic purposes but also for novice clinicians to be aware of to help reduce negative reactions. Being aware of this fact can help the clinician to not take client's behaviors personally if they are feeling attacked in anyway during the initial interview.

Another interesting point I came across was, "the number of similar conflicts the individual has within a year indicates the severity of these behaviors (Woo & Keating, 2008, p. 842)." How many times a personal struggles with aggressive behaviors, impulsive behaviors, interpersonal problems, etc. is indicative of how severe their pathological personality traits are.

Finally, another really important fact related to interviewing that I thought was worth sharing is the importance of obtaining collateral information to verify what your client is telling you and check for an discrepancies as well as obtaining additional information (Woo & Keating, 2008). In an inpatient setting, this is often not difficult because family contact is typical. However, in an outpatient setting my thought is that it would be harder to obtain collateral information because of confidentiality concerns. In either case, Keating and Woo (2008) stress the importance of obtaining releases of information and consents to share information in addition to accurate documentation throughout the duration of the counseling relationship.

 

Woo, S., & Keatinge, C. (2008). Diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders across the lifespan. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.