Using the Information ISI and IDI

Questions 33. Continuing our explanation of data collection requires examination of two additional forms: the Initial Session Inventory (ISI) and The Initial Data Inventory (IDI). These forms will be completed in the initial session. Each are two pages and provided for you in your course material. The Initial Session Information is the very first form that you give the client. There are several ways to get this information at or before the first session with your client: a few minutes in the waiting room area or the first session or completed online. You will need their contact information and for your client records and your data base. There are different facets of it, because there's a lot of important information here; some is very obvious like today's date, their name, address, city, state and zip code, and then their phone number. And you want to get both phone numbers, if they work. You want to be able to reach them during the day if you need to shift schedules. More than one way to reach them is always best.

Some information will help with your own statistics and marketing and other things will help you understand their background and current situation which aids your analysis of their presenting problem and helping them heal and grow. Using their mobile phone, because everyone has a separate number. You can simply put it in, and then you'll pull up that file. Marital status is important because you need to know if you're working with a person that's in a separation, just been divorced, widowed, engaged. The next section is general health information, which is important because health impacts relationships and personal problems. Sometimes people come for counseling thinking that's what they need, it's not their problem at all. They're just not well. Current weight versus recent weight changes can indicate some illnesses of their symptoms. And brief history of past difficulties or illnesses provides additional information for you to use in your diagnosis. 

Marital status also provides information that helps with understanding how to help them. You need to know if there is a spouse and if he or she is willing to seek counseling. The referral information is important also, because that's part of your contact base for your practice; you need to know how they found out about you. If it's a pastor or another professional, it's good to follow up with the initial contact with a letter to that person saying, “Thank you for the referral.” That shows appreciation of their confidence in you, and also provides a way to get more information about the case. The referring person often can provide important information in a matter of a few minutes, which might otherwise take you a matter of hours or sessions. They will potentially have an objectivity that you're not going to get from the client. If you use marketing plans, it's good to know how effective your investment is for that marketing. You can spend a lot of money on things that just don't bring clients. I have found that radio advertisements are very expensive and don't work very well. The two best sources for building the client base are word of mouth referrals from former clients or pastors that I contacted through my mailing list of about 400 churches within a 50-mile radius. I contact each of them every four months with a letter of introduction with a brochure or an article I’ve written about biblical counseling.

Questions 34 & 35. Now the next section is called previous experience, and the reason is that people will often not share with you something that they will write down on a questionnaire. For example, when someone has been exposed to soft core pornography, like online porn sites or magazines, including hard core videos and masturbation, they're not going to eagerly share that with you on their first visit. Pornography can be especially impactful for men and affects their marital relationship, their views of sexuality and their own emotions. The answers will identify the areas that you need to investigate further. 

You need to investigate this further, a good thing to do is to make a list of the different questions and answers that appear to be red flags indicating that something's wrong. If it's a woman that's involved in these things, which is rarer, then you'll potentially find that she has an exaggerated sexual drive. A false sense of security comes from a sexual act by both men or women, and there's a distortion with extreme emotions that result in being sexually desirable and active. This can be a substitute for a sense of peace that comes from morality, trusting God, and closeness to God. There can be lots of distortions about sexuality.

And then the third one says, “Have you ever been exposed to the occult such as Ouija boards or seances?” People get into levitation and tarot cards and seances and auras, and reading auras, and that's what this question is trying to expose. I have had some cases where people were or actually committed to being witches or warlocks. Even after their salvation, they kept around the house things like tarot cards and such. I suggested that they take those things out, remove them from the premises and burn them. Evil influences that can come through objects. You need to learn about any influence from Satan that is still oppressing them or what they have been that deeply exposed to. I have found very few, probably 1% or less of all the cases I've had in eight years that dealt with actual Satanic possession. Many more cases where the person had dabbled in something like this, been to a psychic, fortune teller or purchased tarot cards. Even those had elements of oppression in their life that came from this involvement. If they have oppression, then you can work with a person to remove the objects, expose them to the Gospel, or to lead them to Christ to remove this influence. Some people have gone a lot deeper into white magic, or black magic. 

The next section about spiritual experiences is also very important also. It starts with just the basic question of, “Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you born again? Do you read the Bible daily, weekly, monthly, hardly at all. Do you pray daily, weekly, monthly, hardly ever.” You will be a little surprised by what you learn. You'll find people that profess to be Christians, and yet they very rarely pray and don’t read the bible. They don't know very often what this whole idea of being born again or being saved is about. If you find inconsistency in their answers, then ask them to clarify their responses. Do you mean you only pray in church? Do you only pray when you're in a crisis? Has anyone ever talked to you about the gospel? Do you understand the idea of the birth, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? That that is critical, that it's necessary. A lot of people go to churches where no one ever presents the gospel to them, and ask them if they've accepted Christ as their Savior. You need to know that. As you work with them, you can help them to establish a prayer life, and a devotional life. You may need to help them know how to use resources.  And a lot of people don't even know the rudiments of a concordance. They don't realize that they can find answers to their concerns. Help them to gain more knowledge.

The last part of this says, “Are you currently attending a church? Yes or no.” I also use this question to gather information for my statistics. I keep track of the churches people come from, and each month I do a summary. Then I know which denominations are supporting my practice. That will help you then to focus your contact with churches that are more supportive, rather than spending your time and postage on churches that aren't referring.  

Now the financial information is critical for just general payment, who's going to use insurance or if the local church is going to support their counseling costs. If insurance is paying you need get all the information that you need to file the claim: name of the company, the policy number, social security number, and anything needed to call the insurance company and identify to them that you're a provider. You will need to learn the individual's insurance coverage plan and benefit package. That's just so important so that you can proceed with the counseling and not get three or four sessions into it, and then find out that the insurance company won't pay anything. You get their problem out on the table. You don’t want to financially overstep your ability to help them. You have to be a good steward of your time. If they can’t pay, you may need to refer them to someone else or put them on a waiting list until you find out some other means of support, even if it's that you call their church. Many churches have a Benevolent Fund, which basically supports the needs of others. I give 10% of my counseling away. I   find out background information to make sure their needs are genuine. I do that because of a perception within myself that I want to give back to God some of the help that he gave me. I’ve also been careful to do this for someone who wants an audience, but doesn't really want help. 

Once you get this form back, read through it, and write down anything that you need to talk with them further about. Also at the initial session, you will be giving them an Individual Data Inventory form. This form will be in the packet of documents you give them to complete and send back to you before the second session. Along with the Individual Data Inventory will be the Analysis questionnaire. The IDI asks some questions that are more personal or intimate, that it would not be appropriate to ask to somebody that you just met. These questions can bring up emotions, fear, pain and memories. Let the client know that the information gathered on the ISI and IDI will be kept confidential in a secure file to protect their privacy. The first section will gather emergency contact information which also provides a way to connect with the client. This can be very important if they just totally drop out of sight especially if there's some form of abuse, or someone a person who is very controlling. The health information goes to other types of difficulties beyond regular illness like alcoholism. Also, the question about abuse requires more than a yes or no answer. Who did it? Was it the father? Was it a mother? Was it an aunt or an uncle? Was it random? Was it one time? Was it many times? Was it consistent, persistent? Having been sexually molested as a child or an adult is important to know, and if they were molested then by whom was it? Was it by a mother, a father, someone they looked up to. Was it an attack? Was it random? Was it more than once? The thought of being sexually molested as an adult is sort of an odd thought, and what you're going to find is that sometimes women will perceive that their husbands have sexually molested them, whether they force the sexual act on them, or they involve them in some type of perversion. But molestation doesn't only occur to children. It occurs to adults too. And obviously, if a person is raped, that's an extreme form of sexual molestation. 

You also want to talk to them about past counseling or therapists. If you have not developed a Release of Information for your professional use with clients, be sure to do so in all of your communication with outside professionals. You can save yourself an awful lot of time if you find out what type of therapy or treatment the person has received. Also, if they've been in any sort of psychiatric institution where they've been given a drug therapy, it's good to find out if they've been given antidepressants or antianxiety medications. Have they had electroshock treatment therapies, and how many and when.

 Also, you need to know if the person has spent time in jail and what for, so that you can understand that facet of their lives better. Along with the issue of arrest, will come the issue of drugs, the use of drugs. What kind of drugs? What did they what did they use? How much do they use? Do they take medications? Now? Are they on multiple medications? Sometimes some of their symptoms come from the interaction of drugs.  They may all be prescribed and good, but actually be working to create hallucinations or depression or memory loss or paranoia.  

The next section on page two of three pages here is called a religious background, and this asks them basic things like, how often do you attend church? Are you baptized? What does your spouse believe? You're trying to ascertain their level of commitment and involvement in their faith at the point of their church attendance, to see if it goes along with their Scripture reading and they prayer life. The next question that says, “Have you had any significant spiritual experiences since you were converted?” What we're looking for is a point of recognizing their need for commitment to God and their faith.  Is there some description of spiritual maturity. 

The parental family history is important because what we're trying to do is look into their background and find out how they were raised. For example, the first question says, “If you were reared by anyone other than your own parents, briefly explain. They might have been abandoned, reared by somebody that didn't care, and never had any rules and let them run wild. We also want to find out about their parents. Are they still living? What was their religious background, or their mother and father? Did they attend church? What were their occupations? Are they still married? If they're separated, it may be that this person watched the other parent commit adultery, and it was very devastating. Now you're asking these questions to learn about their childhood experiences. You're also trying to find out who they felt closest to their father, their mother, their aunt or uncle, and asking them to give you a personal rating of their childhood? Was it happy? Was it unhappy? Was it in the middle? We also want to find out if they are the effect of birth order. Were they the youngest? Were they the oldest? Were they one child among a dozen? Or were they an only child? All of those things will have an impact upon their perceptions, their emotions and their concepts. 

Now the last section asks, they ask the person focus they want the counseling to accomplish; their expectations. A lot of people come to counseling saying, I've got a problem, but they don't have a real clear idea of what they want to gain from it. This will them to formulate their thoughts into a statement that says, I want my marriage to be restored. I want to go draw closer to God. I want help with my addictions. I want to do a better job parenting. I want to stop being depressed. I have fears and insecurities that I need help with. The second question, when it says, what kind of actions have you taken in attempting to deal with your difficulties? Often people will say, nothing. I haven't done anything. I haven't known what to do, I haven't tried. What have they done? You're going to find that some people have been to lots and lots of counselors. Some people will say, I've talked to my pastor, my friends. Some will say I've only prayed. Some will say I've just worked myself to death to try to get my spouse or my boss or whoever to listen to me. Some people will say they've done nothing because maybe they're real passive, or they just don't know what to do, or they're hopeless. A third question asks if there's any other information that the person would like to share in relation to what they're concerned about. Sometimes people will tell you things that they've sort of withheld through this whole process of gathering data, and now they'll tell it to you. Maybe they'll put down there, I'm having an affair and my husband doesn't know, or my wife doesn't know, and I'm afraid to tell them. Sometimes you'll find out things that will surprise you. It's the last chance to tell you what's on their mind. And the fourth question asks if there's any history of mental illness within your family, and if yes, asking for a description of the person's relationship to the client and the type of difficulty that he or she experienced, to the best of the client’s, remembrance or understanding. In a small percentage of cases, there is a pattern of mental illness within the family. Look for diagnosis. My uncle John was schizophrenic. My mother was depressed, and was in a psychiatric hospital three times. She was on medication. She never did come out of it. There can be a link between the mental illness in the family and the client suffering with the same thing. 

Question 36. Now we have worked through a description of both sets of information or gathering data, both the Initial Session Inventory and the Individual Data Inventory. Please find both forms and fill them out as if you were a client. It's good for you to get a feel of what it's like to be on the other side of the desk. It'll help you remember so that you don't ever take anything for granted or assume anything. Once you have them completed, look for some of the warnings or the flags that need further investigation, and write those down. You will use this later when you analyze your own AQAL in Course Three where we analyze this information. In latter courses, you will need to review your completed forms and potentially review them with a mentor. This will show your level of understanding and skill in preparing to help your client.

Copyright 1987, 1990, 1993 by Daniel D. Wilkinson. All rights reserved. For more information concerning this material, write to:
The Biblical Christian Counseling Ministries, Inc., 2730 Radcliffe Dr., Florissant, MO 63031.
Any reproduction of this material without the express written consent of the author is prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A..