Reduction in functioning or a lack of improvement, however, suggests a need to alter treatment. Continuous assessment, therefore, is important, because it keeps the counselor apprised of the client's ever changing needs and indicates treatment efficacy. Typically a debriefing follows the qualitative assessment experience. Clients can process what they learned from the experience immediately within the counseling session. The intent of this experience is to help clients reflect upon significant past events which have influenced them.
Clients draw a horizontal timeline on a blank sheet of paper.
They are then asked to recall past significant experiences, relationships, events or wishes which have influenced their lives, and to plot these along the timeline. The result gives the counselor detailed information about significant events in the client's developmental history. Similarly, role plays can serve as a qualitative assessment experience. The role play provides the mental health counselor with a sample of the client's behaviors. Understanding the self-talk used by a client can help the counselor generate effective intervention ideas.