questions

After practicing as an intern psychologist for a few weeks, my female owner mused that her clients pay her to ask questions that they have to answer themselves.

If there’s one thing which my female owner can wish for, it is the ability to ask the right questions. Questions that would help to clarify matters, questions that would create positive ambivalence in the receiver, questions that would bring the subconscious into awareness. Asking the right questions can help to zoom into the main issues and help the receiver to confront issues that he had been avoiding.

My female owner is not one to ask (many) questions. Growing up in an Asian culture, she has been well trained not to ask questions and to accept things as they are. Keeping questions to herself meant that she would somehow rationalise the answers by making naïve assumptions.

Feedback from her clinical supervisor constantly revolved around one issue – being able to get specific details on the client’s presenting problems. Again and again, my female owner was unable to grasp the full understanding of the problem because she didn’t ask the right questions or didn’t ask enough of the right questions.

The art of asking questions. A gift that my female owner urgently needs.