CTPP · The therapeutic conversation · Practice in pairs

Counseling Skills

Short moments from real sessions, from The Good Hypnotherapist. One of you reads the client's line, in character. The other answers aloud, using the skill on the card. Then open a possible response and talk about what worked. All practice apps · Role cards · VAK Listening · Metaphor Builder

Practice

How we practice

Choose a skill, or practice them all.
The client reads the line aloud, with feeling.
The practitioner answers aloud. Slowly. Pausing is part of the skill.
The client says how it felt to receive. Then open a possible response together.
Swap roles and draw again.

The skills

Active listening. Attune to tone, body and silences. Paraphrase, use minimal encouragers, resist the urge to fix.

Reflecting feelings. Name the emotion you sense and offer it back, leaving room to be corrected.

Summarizing. One clear sentence that pulls things together, then "Does that sound right?"

Normalizing. "A lot of people feel that way." Never minimizing.

Reframing. A new, more empowering view, built from the client's own words and offered softly.

Open questions and pauses. Don't put the answer in the question. Let silence work.

Presence and repair. Focused attention, open awareness, kind intention. Notice a rupture and name it gently.

Defining goals. In the client's own words, grounded in experience, flexible.

Remember

These are not rigid techniques. A possible response is one way, not the right way. Used with presence, the skills become an intuitive, responsive way of talking with people.