Immediacy

Definition of immediacy  Immediacy is a characteristic of a counselor's verbal response describing something as it occurs within a counseling session.

Purposes for Immediacy  to bring out in the open something you feel about yourself, the client or the relationship that has not been expressed directly,  to generate discussion or provide feedback about some aspect of the relationship, or the interactions as they occur, and to facilitate client self-exploration and maintain the focus of the interaction on the client, or the relationship, rather than on the counselor.

Ground rules for immediacy the counselor should describe what he or she sees as it happens, the counselor should be expressing things in the present tense, the counselor should take responsibility for his or her feelings by using the personal pronouns, I, me or mine, and the counselor should time his immediate responses so that there is a strong relationship before he uses them.

Ground Rules for Confronting Be aware of your motives. To avoid blame, focus on the incongruity of the problem Cite a specific example Confrontation should not occur unless you are willing to continue in or commitment to the counseling relationship. It should be used early in a session Don't confront on more than two successive occasions It may take more than confrontation to bring about resolution of the discrepancy