Clinical Interview Skills and Techniques

The core idea here is the clinical interview itself — how a therapist actually opens a session, builds rapport, elicits a history, and navigates sensitive material, regardless of which theoretical orientation they eventually practice from. You'll spend most of the semester in role-plays working through Morrison's interview structure (chief complaint, present illness, personal history, signs and symptoms), with a midterm, a quiz, and a performance assessment that grades your interviewing in action rather than just your recall. It sits at the bridge between the abnormal/clinical theory courses you've already taken and any applied practicum or graduate-level therapy training, where being able to sit across from a patient and run a coherent first interview is the baseline skill everything else assumes.