Chapter Summary

Our goal in this chapter was to introduce you to the first steps involved in your initial client meeting. We provided an overview of some concepts that you will likely learn more thoroughly in other courses, such as the Mental Status Exam, assessing for special conditions of abuse or suicide risk, different methods of diagnosis, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. All of these subjects are relevant to the intake interview. We attempted to provide you with an overview of that process and to give specific examples. Finally, we introduced some mistakes commonly made by beginners so you can be conscientious about avoiding them during your first meeting with your client. The next chapter introduces you to the exploration phase of therapy.