Feedback is used to build the therapeutic alliance. The Therapeutic Alliance is the relationship between the social worker and the client based on mutual understanding, confidence, and trust. Without a solid alliance the patient will struggle to meet their goals, lose faith in services and possible you as their social worker. You may also struggle in connecting with the client and in overall service delivery.

Feedback is a way to check-in with your client to understand if their needs are being met, how they feel about service delivery, and about working with you. Feedback can be asked through questions such as "How are you feeling about the process so far?" "What has been helpful?" etc. The link below is the guide resource discussed in class.

• You and your group are to complete 4-5 minute demonstration of the use of attending behaviors using the scenario below.

• Scenario
  • Tom is a 31-year-old black male who recently got promoted to Director of Operations. He has been with the company for 5 years and after the promotion, he started to experience racial macro-aggressions from colleagues who have made comments about how he got the job. Tom is feeling overwhelmed by the toxic workspace and is finding it difficult to get up in the morning.

While there's no one right way to do this, some general principles apply:

• Limit the number of questions you ask. No one likes to be bombarded with question after question. In any one session, ask no more than three or four feedback questions. When you're still building trust with a client, consider asking just one question per session.
• Ask about both positive and negative experiences. While it may be tempting to ask only about what went well, encourage clients to share what they're finding challenging or difficult. This is your best opportunity to address obstacles and signal that you genuinely care about how clients feel.
• Include questions about individual sessions and therapy overall. It's important to explore how clients are experiencing a given session as well as therapy in general. This helps you understand both the big picture and occurrences specific to individual sessions.
• Reserve feedback requests for the end of session. This rule isn't written in stone, but it helps avoid interrupting the flow of the session. Be sure to leave some time to address clients' responses before the session ends.