Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Interventions to Use With Mental Health Patients

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Interventions
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Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Interventions
Professionals working with mental health patients must develop effective communication to promote a therapeutic relationship and enhance patients’ health outcomes. As Varcarolis and Fosbre (2021) indicate, mental health professionals must utilize verbal and nonverbal communication interventions to help their patients.
One of the verbal communication interventions that can be utilized when working with mental health patients is probing using open-ended questions. Practitioners can ask patients questions that require more than a yes or no response. According to Gorman and Anwar (2019), open-ended questions discourage yes or no responses and encourage the patients to express their feelings and needs in their own words. This can help the practitioner gain a clear picture of what the patient is experiencing. In addition, mental health practitioners can use paraphrasing as a verbal communication intervention. According to Varcarolis and Fosbre (2021), paraphrasing involves repeat...