Non-verbal Communication and Facial Expressions - Essay Example

The client started by giving a brief outline of the problem that was caused by her dog.
I love my dog because she is a good companion but of late she has been giving me problems. She messes around especially the carpet and my neighbors often complain about her. At one time she was injured by my neighbor’s child.

I used a clarification strategy to get to the crux of the issue:
How often does this happen? Is it something that occurs daily or it is something that occasionally happens?
The client stated that this problem has been ongoing for some time now:
This dog used to behave well but all of a sudden, she just started displaying some disgusting behavior. Disposing her is not an option but she irritates me to the nerve.

I then used immediacy by saying:

I can see that you are angry with your dog because she makes the carpet dirty. However, I have done some research and discovered that pet lovers ought to be patient with their pets since they have a habit of messing around in most cases. I then posed this question: What do you think must be done then?
However, I realized that I had blundered by asking this question since the client was seeking help to address the problem. Therefore, for self-disclosure, I sympathized with the client and indicated that as human beings, we always feel the same way when we clean the mess with the dogs. I paraphrased my question so that the customer could shed more light on her feelings toward this dog. She responded by saying:

Well, I do not know if it is a good idea to keep her locked for some time and only release her during meal times and at night. I just need a strategy that would make her change her behavior.
From this response, I realized that my customer was mainly concerned with finding a lasting solution to this problem rather than disposing of the dog. I responded to the client by indicating that a dog can be trained but this can be done over time. This response gave my client renewed hope about changing the behavior of her dog. I used strategies such as reflection, summarization paraphrasing as well as clarification in carrying out this task.

Summary and conclusion
I have learned a lot of new things as far as interviewing is concerned. In terms of nonverbal communication, I maintained a steady eye contact and I would also use some facial expressions when talking to my client. I also listened very carefully to her as she spoke.

However, one weakness I have noted about my interviewing technique is that some of my questions were too direct. For instance, I said: “What do you think should be done?” I do not think that this question should be asked to the client who has come for help. Essentially, the interviewer should suggest solutions on behalf of the customer rather than the opposite. Overall, I appreciate the skills gained in class since I am now confident about interviewing on my own. However, in the future, I think I need to structure my questions so that they are easy to understand by the interviewer. This will help to create mutual understanding between the interviewer and the client. There is also a need to improve listening skills so that the interviewer does not keep on repeating the same question. Read More