Therapy Rapport Building Worksheet

Ensuring your client is comfortable with sharing their vulnerabilities with you is integral for achieving treatment outcomes. It is important to build a healthy and respectful relationship with your client where they trust you completely and are not hesitant to share what they want.

Following are some tips that can help you tone your rapport building skills:

Always maintain a calm persona with the client even if you are provoked by them in one way or the other.
Show utmost patience and respect the pace the client wants to take in their own therapy process instead of pushing them unnecessarily
Make the client feel like they are the ones guiding their own self towards recovery.
Never pinpoint flaws or mistakes directly. Help the client to reach that conclusion themselves so that they are better able to accept and rectify their mistakes.
Show genuine concern with both verbal and non verbal language for the client’s issues no matter trivial or big.
Be observant of subtle cues that may indicate the client is not fully trusting you or hesitant with sharing important information. Make an effort to first bring them at ease before probing further.
Your body language and tone of voice must always convey genuine warmth and understanding.
Have a list of age appropriate icebreakers handy to break a tough session when needed or to use in the beginning of sessions to put the clients at ease.
Ensure that your clinical setting appears clean, friendly and peaceful.
Tone your listening and paraphrasing skills to ensure the client really feels heard.
Make sure to use positive words and affirmations to keep up the clients morale and motivation to achieve their treatment outcomes.
Minimise or eliminate any distractions during the sessions that can make the client feel like your attention is somewhere else.

Reference

Leach M. J. (2005). Rapport: a key to treatment success. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 11(4), 262–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2005.05.005

You can download more Mental Health worksheets here.

Please note: There may be a more up-to-date and editable version of this worksheet available here which may be more suitable to present to clients if you are a therapist or to use in a classroom as a teacher or guidance counsellor.