Reception interview

The reception interview or admission interview is a work modality that emerged approximately ten years ago, it is related to a type of diagnostic intervention that integrates the reception and resolution of the query in a single encounter .

Its objective is to help clarify something of the psychological order that at a manifest level is presented to the client as confused or entangled, such as “I don’t know how to solve the problem with my children.”

What happens at the reception interview?

Reception from the etymological point of view implies the action of receiving and going out to meet the other . In this sense, the receptive attitude of the psychologist and clinical listening that enables the consultant to speak about himself and the matter that summons him are put into play .

During this reception interview , the patient will be asked several questions to make a diagnosis or to approach the patient and create a personalized treatment plan. The reception interview is also the time to ask questions of the therapist. The questions asked of the patient depend on a variety of factors, including: reason for admission, age, any pre-existing conditions, and what you want to achieve with therapy . In the interview, the questions can be asked directly or by means of a diagnostic test on paper.

Usually the interviews are recorded by the therapist and the data is written as a transcript that can be analyzed at a later date. The psychologist must also take special care when interviewing vulnerable groups, such as children , since they must take into account that children have a limited attention span and do not always respond to the oral interview method, for this reason they should be avoided long interviews.

The language used by the psychologist must be appropriate for the vocabulary of the person or group of people attending the interview. For example, the psychotherapist must change the language of the questions to match the social antecedents of age, educational level, social class, or previous mental conditions that prevent fluent language from his patients.

Objectives of the reception interview

The psychologist will help the patient to think with an active attitude, but it is extremely important not to lose the objectives of the interview : resolution, clarification and orientation.

Resolution: the psychologist must have the ability to resolve the conflict presented by the patient and decide the appropriate treatment for their condition.

Clarification: the clarification is intended to better define the patient’s communication. What he is trying to communicate is explained to him, but in a summarized and clear way, so that he can understand his conflict himself.

Guidance: it is the ability to give an answer according to what the consultant is willing to do, while the recommendation must be viable for the consultant. It does not have to do with something finished but with the ability to give answers to what happens to the subject, taking into account the explicit demand. It is fundamentally about arriving at a situational diagnosis (current situation of the consultant).

This type of psychological intervention modality gives the consultant the benefit that in the first encounter they are given guidance and recommendations on what concerns them. It is linked to moments of crisis . It is a semi-directed interview and therefore not pre-established, and its duration varies between an hour and a half and  approximately fifty minutes .