Microskills training

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Allen E. Ivey · 1966

What it is

Microskills training (microcounseling, microtraining) is not a therapy. It is a training paradigm plus a skill taxonomy. Allen E. Ivey and colleagues developed it from 1966 onwards; the first monograph appeared in the Journal of Counseling Psychology in 1968. It breaks the helping interview into…

Format

• Session count and format. The microskills texts do not prescribe a number of sessions. The five stages can run within a single session (including a 15–20-minute practice interview) and also across a whole course of counselling, depending on the theory used. Format is individual face-to-face; the…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Microskills has two frameworks that work together: (A) the skill hierarchy, which sets the order for learning and the menu of in-session responses, and (B) the five-stage session, which organises any interview or course of counselling. A third element, (C) the microtraining procedure, is how a clinician acquires each skill.
• The original paradigm, as used by Aldridge & Ivey (1975), ran in this order: (1) a brief recorded baseline interview (5 minutes); (2) reading a written manual on one skill; (3) watching video models of effective and less effective use, then discussion with the trainer; (4) watching one's own baseline recording and identifying where the skill was used or missing; (5) planning the next interview with the trainer; (6)…
• Version followed: the microskills hierarchy and five-stage session as organised in Ivey, Ivey & Zalaquett, Intentional Interviewing and Counseling, 10th ed. (Cengage, 2023; chapter order verified from the publisher's table of contents). Skill definitions come from the 8th–9th edition as described in secondary sources. The training procedure follows the original microcounseling paradigm (Ivey et al., 1968; Ivey,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Lecturing. Keep the client talking more than you.
• A choice the client owns. Avoid coercive "warnings".
• Emotional activation around losses or trauma; pace it.
• Reliance on one or two skills regardless of the client.
• Defensiveness (go back to listening) or curiosity (keep going).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.