Interpersonal Communication Skills
Interpersonal Communication Skills tests the working alliance: whether you can listen accurately, respond with empathy, ask questions that open thinking, and adapt to culture and health literacy.
Core skills
- Reflective listening: reflect content and feeling, then check accuracy.
- Open-ended questions open exploration; closed questions clarify details.
- Affirmations name specific strengths, not generic praise.
- Summaries collect themes and signal transitions.
- Nonverbal: open posture, appropriate eye contact, matched pace; silence is a tool.
- Avoid premature advice, reassurance, and "fixing."
Health literacy and culture
- Plain language, three to five key points per conversation.
- Ask-tell-ask: ask what the client knows, tell briefly, ask what they understood.
- Cultural humility: ask about food, family roles, faith, and preferences; do not assume.
- Use a trained interpreter for sensitive topics rather than a family member.
Worked example
Client: "I just can't get to the gym after work." A weak reply is "You should go in the morning." A stronger reply reflects: "Evenings are wiped out by the time you get home, and the gym feels like one more demand." Then an open question: "What has made activity work on any day recently?" This keeps the client talking and surfaces their own solutions.
Traps
- Leading questions ("Don't you think you should...?").
- Stacking several questions at once.
- Generic cheerleading instead of specific affirmation.
- Confusing empathy with agreement.
- Advising before exploring; missing nonverbal cues; using jargon.