The Micro Skills taught in Essential Interviewing: A Programmed Approach to Effective Communication are used everyday in the Interviewing and Counselling field. They are also used in our everyday communications with people. You often find individuals reflecting the feelings of those whom they are listening to, along with giving appropriate information and making proper self-disclosures. Attending to others behaviours is a skill that is used constantly in our lives as we mimic the actions of others while we also look to see what makes others uncomfortable. We can learn a great deal about someone just by their eye contact made and their body posture and actions. Often we find ourselves having to confront a friend about an aspect of their lives that may be dangerous and then work on them to cooperate with us to enlist professional help. These skills are used on an ongoing basis in our lives, however they are used more intensely in the Interviewing and Counselling field.
             The Skills are listed in the Text Book as follows: Attending Behaviour, Reflecting Content, Reflecting Feeling, Communicating Feeling and Immediacy, Confronting, Self-Disclosing, Information Giving, Interpreting, Structuring for Information and Action, and Enlisting Cooperation. These Micro Skills allow for an Interviewer or a Counsellor to connect with their client on a more intensified and personal level.
             The first Micro Skill taught in the Text Book is Attending Behaviour. The overall meaning of Attending Behaviour involves both the orientation of your body and the way in which you respond to what the client is communicating to you. There are three ways in which you can attend to the client and these are eye contact, nonverbal behaviour, and listening or verbal following. Attending Behaviour allows the client to communicate in a free and open manner. Attending Behaviour should be used throughout the interview or counselling session. Eye contact should be kept fo...