Making Contact: The Therapist's Guide to Conducting a Successful First Interview

Making Contact: The Clinician’s Guide to Conducting the Successful First Interview is a  practical handbook which prepares professionals for a critical moment in their training: the first time they meet alone with a new patient. 

 

Knowing how to conduct the first interview, often overlooked in professional training, is fundamental to the foundation of a trainee's clinical skills. This practical resource will be useful to trainers, supervisors, and teachers in the helping professions--especially those who are working intensely with several interns and want to provide them with basic clinical practice instruction.

Trainers can use this guide as a primer to prepare interns for working on-site in their placements, externships, or rotations before they meet clients for the first time. Supervisors can use this guide to stimulate and guide discussions with supervisees prior to their first client contact.  Teachers can use this guide in their preparation for individual interviewing courses, skills courses, and fieldwork classes. Clinicians in training can use this guide to obtain behind the scenes knowledge of how to be an effective therapist and practically prepare for the first interview.

Leah DeSole received her doctorate from Columbia University.  She is now a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. Previously an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and Hunter College, the City University of New York, currently she is affiliated with the NYC Eating Disorder Resource Center.  She has also authored several articles and book chapters on cross cultural issues in psychology.