The Stages of a Client Session

A client session normally covers three distinct stages: beginning, middle, and terminal. Each stage requires specific skills to ensure a successful outcome.

The beginning of a session is intended to make the client feel welcome, to give you a chance to introduce yourself as a worker, and to start a conversation that makes the client feel at ease and works to build trust and rapport. According to the Cambridge Dictionary (2024), rapport is “a good understanding of someone and an ability to communicate well with them.” Establishment of rapport is foundational to the positive delivery of services to the client.

Clients have varied experiences with agencies, and may have experienced discrimination, exclusion, and systemic barriers. This means they may arrive at your agency with a strong distrust of helpers. Other clients may be highly sensitive, or apprehensive about change and unfamiliar people. For this reason, building rapport is very important. Some components of rapport according to O’Hara et al. (2016, p. 111) are, “mutual attention, warmth, respect, responsiveness, and shared understanding.” Some ways to build rapport are to have a welcoming and friendly presence, to speak in a confident way that shows leadership, to make small talk, and to read the client’s nonverbal cues while responding accordingly.

Once a basic sense of comfort and confidence is achieved, the worker will move into the next phase of the interview process: the middle stage. Many interpersonal communication skills will be implemented during this stage. Once you have made the client feel welcome, you will establish the client’s needs. What services or solutions do they require, and are you able to provide them as per policy and available resources? If the agency you are employed with does not offer the required services, you will then refer the individual to an agency that better suits their needs.

At this stage, the use of questioning and paraphrasing is extremely important. A misunderstanding at this phase could lead to future complications. Active listening is key to ensure that you are truly hearing the client’s needs and not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions. Showing empathy to the client’s needs and concerns will be helpful for truly supporting the client. Employing observation skills in this stage will also enhance your ability to best serve the client.

Observation skills are developed with practice and include critical thinking. Having strong observational skills involves the ability to observe, in a nonjudgmental way and with awareness, the verbal and nonverbal cues that are being relayed by the client and yourself. Analyzing these cues with a critical lens and adjusting your approach, language, or nonverbal cues to match the client’s will increase the communication process. O’Hara et al. (2016, p. 117) stated, “good observation skills can greatly enhance the rapport between practitioner and client. Observing the client’s use of language, mirroring it, and/or referring to it can make the client feel better understood.”

Some other skills that are important at this stage are summarizing and self-disclosure. Summarizing is a skill where the worker summarizes the client’s key points (O’Hara et al., 2016, p. 122). This can be used if the client has shared a lot of information and you want to keep the conversation on track. It may also help the client to hear back what they are asking for in order to ask for clarification. Brammer and MacDonald (2003) explained summarizing skills as, “attention to what the helpee says (content), how it is said (feelings), and the purpose, timing, and effect of the statements (process).” Summarizing is distinct from paraphrasing, as it typically involves critical thinking to accurately recap various themes into one concise idea, whereas paraphrasing is using your own words to restate a specific idea or thought.

Although there are many other soft skills that will be used when working with a client, the last one that will be mentioned here is the skill of self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is a skill that should be used wisely in a client-professional relationship. If you have a client who is a single parent and struggling financially, and that has also been your lived experience, you may find it helpful to share that with the client, to increase understanding and relatability. On the other hand, “the client’s perception of the worker may change upon self-disclosure, it could decrease trust, and the client may feel they are responsible for the worker’s personal problems and emotions” (O’Hara et al., 2016, p. 124). Self-disclosure should be used sparingly and with consideration. The focus of the relationship should always be based on the client and what is in their best interest. In the middle stage of the interview, a clear action plan, along with goal setting, should be documented and understood.

The last phase of the interview process is the ending stage. The end of the interview comes when the services are complete or the allotted time runs out. Be sure to allow enough time to conclude the appointment so the client leaves feeling they have some action steps. The next appointment should be booked, or it should be clear when the client should call back for the next session.

The end of the session should involve the skill of summarizing. Allow 5–10 minutes to summarize the key points of the appointment, leave space for the client to ask questions without feeling rushed, clearly state the course of action and what the client is expected to do before the next appointment, and conclude with the next steps for the next appointment.

If it is the final time you will see the client, there will be final paperwork and case notes required to terminate the file. This may include sending a referral to another agency, with the client’s consent. Spend some time ensuring that the client has had all their needs met and is confident that they no longer require services. As Murphy and Dillon (as cited in O’Hara et al., 2016, p. 125) stated, “the ending process should never be trivialized, as clients may have quite strong feelings about the end of the professional relationship, particularly if the client has experienced major loss.”

If you are working with clients that lack social supports or healthy connections, their relationship with you, even if it is sporadic and brief, may be a very important source of security and stability in their lives. Ending the service or changing workers can cause strong emotions in clients, and should be addressed with empathy, compassion, and a clear path forward.

References

Brammer, L. M., & MacDonald, G. (2003). The helping relationship: Process and skills (8th ed.). Allyn and Bacon.

Cambridge Dictionary. (2024). Rapport. In dictionary.cambridge.org dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rapport

O’Hara, A., Weber, Z., & Levine, K. (2016). Skills for human service practice: Working with individuals, groups and communities (2nd ed). Oxford University Press.