ABSTRACT

Validation as a clinical strategy – communicating that a person’s responses to a situation make sense – may be a particularly valuable skill for social work practitioners working within and across many traditions. This article makes several contributions to the literature on validation. It argues for a narrow definition of validation, reviews laboratory and clinical research on validation, and proposes research directions that will help determine how and if it works. It also uses psychodynamic and behavioural theory to posit mechanisms underlying its helpfulness and to suggest what to validate. Because of its many potential uses, clinical validation deserves to be widely taught in social work curricula alongside other interviewing strategies.

摘要

验证作为一种临床策略——传达一个人对某种情况的反应是有意义的——对于在许多传统内部和跨传统工作的社会工作从业者来说可能是一项特别有价值的技能。本文对验证文献做出了一些贡献。它主张验证的狭义定义，回顾了验证的实验室和临床研究，并提出了有助于确定验证如何以及是否有效的研究方向。它还使用心理动力学和行为理论来提出其有用性的机制，并提出要验证的内容。由于其许多潜在用途，临床验证值得与其他访谈策略一起在社会工作课程中广泛教授。