The Counseling Process Practice Test

These questions are part of the practice quiz. Start practicing

• Overuse of sedating medications, sometimes as a result of over-prescription, is a major substance abuse concern among the aged.
• Most clients are very comfortable receiving positive feedback.
• The counselor can assume that the client, since he or she is a client, is incapable of solving his or her problems.
• In the early stages of developing a racial/cultural identity, there is a tendency for minority group members to view the dominant culture negatively and to have a high level of self-appreciation.
• Reviewing the outcome of homework is rarely a good idea because it gives the client the feeling of being too closely supervised.
• Prejudice is defined as an opinion formed about another person without sufficient knowledge of that person and may trigger feelings of defensiveness or diminished self-worth.
• Wishes and dreams may offer insight into a child's private world.
• Is the following statement true? People in the contemplation stage of readiness for counseling typically self-refer and eagerly enter the therapeutic alliance.
• When intake interviews are used by an agency to screen clients:
• A decision to work with clients in the criminal justice system is based on the belief that persons who commit crimes can learn to fulfill their needs in more positive ways.
• A counselor at age 27: which statement best describes?
• Most adults maintain very good mental ability until late in life.
• Is the following statement true? In considering how to respond to client statements, there is usually one best response.
• Which factor determines the appropriateness of suggesting goals in counseling?
• Is the following statement true? In the triad of emotions, thoughts, and actions, if one changes, the others are likely to change as a consequence.
• Children's earliest conception of right and wrong is based on rudimentary personal values and standards.
• Is the following statement true? An interpretive response in counseling is constructed by applying theory to observed data.
• The task of the counselor during initial disclosure and in-depth exploration is to enter the client's world and understand his or her experience from his or her perspective.
• Reminiscence as a counseling technique with elders may include which outcomes?
• Which statement about counseling ethics is supported by the material?
• Which statement describes the counselor's tendency to develop insights?
• In therapy with children, early comments about play should be
• Is the following statement true? Fidelity to clients is secondary to fidelity to employers because employers pay counselors' salaries and can terminate employment at any time.
• Ethics codes require that counselors always obey the law, even if the law is unjust.
• Incomplete sentence blanks are never useful to stimulate discussion.
• The process of planning actions, implementing, evaluating, and planning next attempts takes too much time to be practical in most counseling settings.
• The ethical standard for 'practicing within the limits of competence' derives from the ethical principle of nonmaleficence.
• In Gestalt counseling the counselor uses confrontation as a frequent technique.
• It is always more appropriate for a counselor to help a client try to accommodate to life situations than to intervene to change some of those conditions.
• Counseling may sometime proceed directly from Stage 2 work to termination.
• Is the following statement true? A 'fill in the blanks' approach to diagnosis is likely more observable in intake interviews than in counseling itself.
• Leading in the counseling process can result in rambling unproductive talk if the client's readiness is underestimated by the counselor.
• Overuse of sedating medications among the aged is a major substance abuse concern.
• Concerns of gay, lesbian, and bisexual clients mirror the full range of concerns typical of the general population.
• Elder abuse is best described as which of the following?
• Culture includes patterns of family and interpersonal relationships.
• If counseling is going well in the in-depth exploration stage, sessions are likely to be:
• Which of the following best describes the timing of termination relative to Stage 2?
• Which factor is NOT typically considered when determining the degree of lead in a counseling session?
• Under the ethics code in this material, social relationships with clients are prohibited but financial relationships with clients are allowed.
• Regarding natural counselors who are effective without formal training, which statement is correct?
• Theories help counselors organize and make sense of the information conveyed to them by clients.
• Involuntary clients are urged or required to attend counseling because:
• Which statement best captures the effect of feedback on clients when it aligns with self-concept?
• Self-confrontation by the client helps move the counseling along faster, but is not necessary for growth to occur.
• Which statement best reflects the relationship described in the material?
• Is the following statement true? In the assessment process, one important question is exactly what happened that made this event different from others.
• During Stage 3 of counseling, it is typical for the client to allow the counselor to take charge.
• Among the old-old, more than half of all women are living alone, while most men live with their spouses.
• Which statement is true according to the material?
• When a counselor comments on a child's play in therapy, early comments should be what?
• For older adults, more than half of women live alone, while most men live with their spouses.
• Is the following statement true? Constructing an interpretive response involves placing meaning on observational data using theory.
• Crisis occurs in the lives of about what percentages?
• Empowerment means that the client has developed resources to cope more effectively with the circumstances of their lives.
• Verbal communication should be prioritized in counseling, and counselors should actively encourage dialogue.
• Why might using play media improve communication with children?
• It is always desirable for a gay, lesbian, or bisexual client to come out so that he or she can begin living life more openly and without deception about sexual orientation.
• Recent research suggests that clients decide within the first three sessions whether counseling with a given counselor will be useful.
• Verbal communication is the currency of counseling and must be optimized even if the client has to be encouraged to enter discourse.
• Genuineness in counseling implies that the counselor should disclose every thought to the client.
• When a client is ambivalent about change, the counselor should avoid becoming directive. True or False?
• Rolling with the resistance means following along with the client's line of thought and emotion until its meaning becomes clearer to the client.
• Codes of ethics provide guidance on professional responsibilities and protect clients.
• It is often through hearing meanings and feelings repeated by the counselor that the client looks again at life events.
• Which statement is not supported by the material?
• The principle of genuineness requires that the counselor disclose every thought, opinion, and feeling to the client so that there will be no feeling of distance.
• Which statement best reflects the overall pattern described for freedom and social needs in well-functioning people?
• There are times when clients may find testing a more comfortable way to convey information than the counseling session itself. True or False?
• The essence of assessment in counseling is that the counselor and client should come to a clearer understanding of what?
• In the debate over counselor directiveness in goal-setting, which statement best captures the view of the field?
• In Stage 3, counselors tend to be more directive than in the first two stages.
• Which statement best captures a limitation of counselors who focus only on affective content and intrapsychic dynamics?
• If you observe unethical practice by another mental health professional, you are obligated to intervene in some way to stop the unethical practice.
• Reaching in means that the counselor is constantly engaging in self-examination to be clear on his or her own understandings and motivations. True or false?
• What best describes 'ability potential responses' in counseling?
• Exaggerating a diagnosis to obtain insurance reimbursement is unethical regardless of whether the counselor personally profits.
• Which statement about primary empathy and inference is true?
• Effective structuring does all but which of the following?
• Culture includes Values.
• Is the following statement true? Reading is recommended as a first source of information for understanding cultural difference.
• In child counseling, what does play media primarily help with?
• What is the approximate ratio of crisis occurrence between women and men?
• Which statement about addressing children's needs in counseling is most accurate?
• Children's drawings can be used to learn about which aspects?
• Trait-factor counseling is linked to guiding individuals toward a suitable occupational or life role.
• Termination should occur when both client and counselor are satisfied that the goals have been achieved.
• In crisis work involving cognitive distortions, which intervention is recommended?
• Which statement about the counselor-client relationship is supported by the material?
• Ability-potential responses are best described as
• A common developmental risk of exaggerated masculinity socialization is...
• Culture includes Language.
• Degree of lead is determined by all but which of the following?
• Which statement is NOT an accurate description of intake interviews?
• Codes of ethics are valuable because they offer counselors a view of the wisdom and ethical values of the profession.
• If a counselor observes unethical practice by a colleague, the counselor should intervene to stop it.
• If counseling attends to affective content but neglects career/education centrality, which is most likely overlooked?
• A counselor who has not extended himself or herself to learn about world views and values of others would be described as what?
• When conversing with children in counseling, the counselor should...
• A client's 'way of construing self and others' is explored and often changed as a result of counseling.
• Vagueness, abstractness, and obscurity in counselor responses are important qualities that provide maximum freedom for the client to set the agenda. True or False?
• Because humans tend to be both egocentric and ethnocentric, they tend to be most comfortable with whom?
• Direct confrontation of defenses is typically the quickest way to move the client to a new place.
• Transference refers to the client reacting to the counselor as authority figures from past experiences.
• Which of the following describes a typical counselor reaction to client reluctance?
• Recommended goals of crisis intervention work include:
• Just as in medical diagnosis, it is usually possible to find a specific cause for the problems in daily living presented by clients.
• Which statement best reflects how children's cognitive development affects counseling?
• Because all people have the same set of emotional 'wiring', there is no need to take special note of cultural differences when formulating empathic responses.
• As a result of the women's movement and the new awareness it created, there is little current evidence of discrimination against women.
• Immediacy response refers to directly addressing issues in the counselor-client relationship.
• Which statement best describes how stress in counseling is experienced by clients?
• Which statement describes how to handle unclear ethical guidance?
• A counselor will often feel anxious if he or she identifies a dislike for a client.
• What is the most common ethical dilemma in day-to-day counseling work?
• For effectively functioning people, freedom is always sacrificed to some degree in order to accommodate the needs of others.
• Which of the following statements is true about play-based approaches with children?
• The counselor will frequently develop insights into the client's concerns and options for resolution before the client does.
• Because decision-making is a rational choice process, the counselor can safely deemphasize emotion with such questions.
• A counselor's initial disclosure phase aims to create trust by demonstrating willingness to become personally involved.
• To establish and maintain an effective therapeutic relationship with a client, the counselor should:
• Information gathered during the assessment phase informs the action planning stage.
• Positive regard means experiencing your client's phenomenal world as if it were your own without ever losing the as-if quality.
• A counselor who treats children as though they were small adults will likely fail primarily because:
• Role-playing or behavior rehearsal can be particularly useful in creating new endings to the client's conflicted relationships with others.
• Ageism simply recognizes that older people are likely to have certain common characteristics.
• The range of possible actions at the action planning stage is shaped by the strengths and coping skills identified in the assessment process.
• Direct confrontation of client defenses is usually both efficient and effective in moving the client to a new place without a lot of beating around the bush.
• A dual relationship means that a client is in counseling with two different counselors at the same time.
• Understanding the boundaries of a problem includes which of the following?
• When a counselor becomes aware that a client's state of crisis is caused by cognitive distortions, which approach may be tried?
• Which statement best explains why clients in crisis may follow through on action plans?
• A dual relationship occurs when a client has two counselors at the same time.
• Of all reluctant and resistant clients, those who are belligerent are the hardest to help.
• Trust is established most readily with culturally diverse clients when the counselor has a genuine belief that there are many valid ways of living a life.
• Which statement about the assessment process is NOT true?
• Counselor emotional reactions to client reluctance and resistance are...
• Is the following statement true? The principle of genuineness requires that the counselor disclose every thought, opinion, and feeling to the client so that there will be no feeling of distance.
• Sometimes ethics codes demand that counselors disobey a law if it is unjust.
• Counselors often have an ethical responsibility to explain to clients why their values are wrong.
• The typical outcome of boys being socialized to exaggerated masculinity is...
• The quality of empathy in counseling requires attention to both the meaning and the feeling of the client's statements.
• Incomplete sentence blanks may be used effectively by inexperienced counselors to stimulate discussion.
• Is the following statement true? Reading is a good first source of information about cultural difference.
• Working with clients in the criminal justice system is based on the belief that such clients can learn to fulfill their needs in more positive ways.
• Trait-factor counseling initially was intended to help young people find a suitable place in the world and continues to have something of that philosophy.
• Crisis prevalence data shows crisis occurs in about 70% of which group?
• Termination occurs appropriately when the goals set out by the client are achieved to the satisfaction of the counselor and client.
• The relationship-focused approach to counseling emphasizes the therapeutic alliance as the core driver of progress.
• Role-playing is primarily used to help clients memorize information.
• Reviewing homework and discussing outcomes can help modify the action plan and celebrate client successes.
• Believing that there are many valid ways of living a life facilitates trust with culturally diverse clients.
• A goal of counseling for individuals who have learned exaggerated gender stereotypes is to assist either type of client toward success in both affective and instrumental domains.
• The causes of a client's distress might conceivably come almost entirely from sources outside the individual.
• Developmental context may cause normal behaviors for one age to be seen as dysfunctional at another age.
• Because counseling is defined as a profession that offers help to people in need.
• Is it valuable to ask a client to suggest possible actions to take if the client failed to solve the problem prior to the session?
• Which statement best describes the aim of assessment?
• It is usually desirable to make amicable small talk at the beginning to cement the alliance.
• Which statement about a counselor's stance toward client problems best aligns with the idea that clients can solve their problems with support, not that they are inherently unable?
• Which statement best describes how to counsel children effectively?
• Resistance is rooted in which of the following?
• Elder abuse in caregiving contexts is often described as which of the following?
• We say the counselor has 'fed the client's transference' when he or she behaves in ways that the client expects of authorities from past experiences.
• In the initial disclosure stage, who begins to make discoveries?
• Culture includes Use and interpretation of non-verbal behavior.
• In the context of child communication, play media is effective because?
• The goal of crisis intervention is to restore the client's functioning to the level that existed prior to the counseling and to prepare the client for future challenges.
• When counseling has been successful the client will have gained in self-knowledge and in the knowledge of how to attack future difficulties.
• Is the following statement true? Homework is a plan, based on the goals of counseling, for the client to try out certain activities outside the counseling sessions.
• The conditions a counselor attempts to create in the initial disclosure phase of counseling demonstrate the counselor's willingness to become involved at a personal level.
• In an ethical dilemma counselors should consult the ethical principles when ethics codes do not clearly prohibit or mandate an action.
• Which statement best reflects how identity is formed?
• When we talk of understanding the boundaries of a problem, we mean learning which of the following?
• As clients learn more about their present behaviors, they generally become increasingly conflicted about the myriad of possibilities for change.
• During brainstorming with a client, counselors should propose several possible action steps for the client.
• Counselors most often influence the socialization of children through direct service in the role of counselor.
• Counselors are ethically obliged to promote the good reputation of the profession.
• Depressive disorders are more common in girls and women than in adolescent boys and men.
• Primary empathy: Does it employ less counselor inference than advanced empathy?
• Transference can be triggered when the client projects past relationships onto the counselor and behaves accordingly.
• Career counseling is most dependent on which theory of counseling?
• In Gestalt counseling the counselor uses confrontation as a frequent technique.
• Crisis prevalence data indicates which statement is most accurate?
• In crisis situations, clients are usually well motivated to escape the discomfort they feel and therefore follow through on action plans.
• Leading in the counseling process is best described as the counselor's moment-to-moment responses to the client's statements.
• Which statement best describes the effect of a counselor asking too many questions?
• Questioning as a technique can be used as a crutch by new counselors who have not yet grown skillful in other techniques.
• In Stage 3, counselors tend to be less directive than in the first two stages.
• If a strong counseling relationship has been established small interruptions of a counseling session (e.g. taking an occasional phone call) are of no consequence.
• During brainstorming with the client, counselors should suggest possible alternatives for action.
• It is often an error to assume that, because a client has appeared for counseling, there is an emotional basis within the client himself or herself for the difficulty reported.
• A 'culturally encapsulated' counselor is defined as one who has not extended himself or herself to learn about the world views and values of persons different from self.
• A counselor's primary responsibility is to:
• Reminiscence as a counseling technique with elders includes which of the following?
• Regardless of whether counseling is brief or extended, the components of the process are the same.
• Empowerment in counseling is evidenced by the client developing internal resources to cope.
• Empathy in counseling is primarily about feeling sorry for the client.
• Behavior therapy assumes that behavior is
• Role-playing is an artificial activity, and as such is not as valuable as developing client insight as other additive responses.
• Brief therapy is most often based on which theoretical position on counseling?
• A counselor's underlying beliefs about people are likely to be evident to clients and influence how the counselor interacts with them.
• What is a common consequence of socializing boys toward exaggerated masculinity norms?
• When assessing suicide risk in a client in crisis, which approach is most appropriate?
• According to the authors, is helping clients become more internal in their orientation to consider the thinking behind their behavior an important goal of counseling?
• Counseling and psychotherapy have been demonstrated as equally effective for older adults as those in other stages of life.
• The ethical principle underlying the standard to practice within the limits of competence is which principle?
• Through the counseling process clients become more aware of thoughts and feelings that were previously unconscious.
• Ability-potential responses depend on the counselor’s recognition of a client’s emerging strengths.
• Which statement best describes immediacy in counseling?
• Is the following statement true? People at the contemplation stage of readiness for counseling typically self-refer and enter the therapeutic alliance eagerly.
• Parent education programs are not particularly useful in preventing and correcting problems associated with gender stereotyping.
• Cognitive therapy is the system that is likely to be the most long-term.
• Which of the following reflects the professional requirement for counselors?
• Retirement as a life transition creates the need to realign many relationships, including that with a spouse or life partner.
• In the initial disclosure stage of counseling, which statement best describes the client's experience?
• Changes in a client's beliefs are among the easiest changes for a counselor to discern. True or false?
• It has been said that most crises involve loss of love or work objectives.
• Which statement best describes the reaction to feedback typical of most clients:
• It would be considered a positive counseling outcome if a client only came to be more accepting of an unchangeable life circumstance.
• When a counselor finds it difficult to like a particular client:
• Which statement best describes reaching in?
• A counselor's aim with people who hold exaggerated gender stereotypes is to help them succeed in both affective and instrumental areas.
• The counselor's understanding of human behavior: Helps him or her to account for and explain significant human reactions.
• If structuring is done effectively at the beginning of counseling, there should be no need to return to structuring later on.
• Exaggerating a client's diagnosis to obtain insurance reimbursement is ethical if the counselor does not personally profit from the change in diagnosis.
• What is a plausible reason a client may have difficulty implementing an action plan?
• Concreteness is a principle that:
• Adolescent boys and men in Western societies have twice the rate of depressive disorders as girls and women.
• Behaviors that are normal for a client of a given age might be seen as dysfunctional at a different developmental stage.
• Which statement about involuntary clients is true?
• When one gets to the action planning stage of counseling, the range of possible trial behaviors a client may try is most related to:
• Ability-potential responses stem from the counselor's understanding of the client's emerging strengths.
• Counselors who work with children and adolescents:
• In counseling children, which approach best aligns with developmental-level communication and respect for dignity?
• Is the following statement true? The principle of genuineness reduces distance between the counselor and client.
• Person-centered counseling is the most common approach to questions of career choice. True or False?
• Which statement describes how crises are commonly characterized?
• Which statement about stress in counseling is accurate?
• Children tend to be very resilient if given support and guidance.