The first statement is the only one that complies with all the characteristics of a good therapeutic objective by specifying: 1) What is to be achieved (talking to mother on phone) 2) How much is enough (at least 3 times a week) 3) When it will be achieved (for a month, starting new year's eve) The other statements lack specificity in one or more areas.

1. Negotiating Counseling
Objectives
How to find efficient
therapeutic objectives

2. Complaints vs. “Real
Problems”
• Complaint: Are expressed
in general and permanent
terms, by their own
nature, they cannot be
worked on, or resolved
• Real problems: Are
described in terms of
actions, thoughts, and
emotions, that are
experimented in real and
specific moments

3. Distinguishing abstractions
from specifics
• Abstractions: Ideas or
opinions that we hold
about objects, people or
events (interpretations,
judgments). They tell us
more about the person
expressing them, than
about the target person.
• Specifics: Descriptions
about perceptions or
sensations

4. Pinpointing (Especificar)
• Helps discriminate facts from
generalizations
• People can begin to understand
themselves less in permanent terms
like “low self – esteem” or
“depressed”, and start to understand
themselves like beings who think,
feel, and act in a certain manner.
• Find the what, how, when, and where

5. Exercise: A or S?
• He looked at me and smiled
• Appreciated his help
• Wanted to be here
• He said: “Can I help you?”
• Worked towards the library
• Spoke with three persons
• Enjoyed my company
• Got to know better
• I felt a chest pain

6. Convert to specifics
• Appreciated his help
• Wanted to be here
• Enjoyed my company
• Got to know better

7. Differentiating thoughts,
emotions and actions
• Thoughts: Mental
processing of experience
through words or symbols
(hard to specify).
Emotions: Internal states
like: blushing, arm
heaviness, moisture on
eyes (hard to specify)
• Actions: Verbs (Easy to
specify)

8. Focusing on a single
event
• Specifying thoughts, emotions,
and actions of a single event
allows us to identify the
processes involved
• People usually talk in terms of
abstractions, and this leads us
to abstract solutions that do not
get played out in reality

9. Goals and objectives
• Goals: General and abstract expression of
something we would like to achieve:
– “I would like to feel better”
– “I would like to have a better relationship
with my mother”
– “I would like to get in shape”
• Objectives: Are specific, measurable,
concrete
– “I would like to cry half the times”
– “I would like to sustain a conversation
with my mother without fighting”
– “I would like to be able to do 60 minutes
on the standing bicycle”

10. 3 characteristics of a
good objective
• What: What we would like to
achieve
• Where / When: Where will this take
place / when will it be achieved
• How much: How much is enough?
I will wake up at 6:00am to arrive to
the University on time, in the
morning, for a month, starting
today

11. Which one of the following statements
complies with all the characteristics of a
good therapeutic objective:
• I will talk to my mother on the phone
at least three times a week, for a
month, starting new year's eve
• I will heighten my quality of life
compared to how I feel today.
• I will be cured from my anxieties and
obsessions within three months
• I will lower the amount of cigarettes
that I smoke to only two a day

12. Which one of the following statements
complies with all the characteristics of a
good therapeutic objective:
• What: I will talk to my mother on the
phone
• How much: at least three times a
week for a month
• When: starting new year's eve