Counselling Techniques: Making Hypotheses Transparent
Channel: Sandra Collins
Date: 2021-05-06

In the counselling technique of making hypotheses transparent, the counsellor offers up to the client succinct statements that reveal their current assumptions about client challenges (or preferred futures). The counsellor may also introduce or reinforce an illustrative metaphor to make their hypotheses more meaningful to the client (i.e., "What you would like to be able to do flex like bamboo in the wind."). The purposes for making counsellor hypotheses transparent are to be transparent about assumptions they are making, to invite client feedback to further refine shared understanding, and to synthesize the share conceptualization of client challenges or preferred outcomes that is emerging through the conversation. You can view descriptions and video demonstrations for the microskills used in this video and other counselling techniques through my Counselling Microskills and Techniques playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZkRzHU4Rjb00X5yz475ITmTzPepFhXEm.

For more counselling resources, please subscribe to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/SandraCollinsDr or check out my counselling ebooks at https://counsellingconcepts.ca/.

Sandra Collins, PhD
https://drsandracollins.com/

© Gina Ko and Sandra Collins, 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/