Holding Space: Redefining the Core Skills of Clinical Interviewing for Today’s Mental Health Landscape

In a time when digital platforms, fast-paced communication, and algorithm-driven attention shape how we relate to one another, mental health professionals face a profound challenge: How do we preserve the depth, presence, and human connection essential to therapeutic work? This webinar, hosted by Livence Mental Health and facilitated by its Founder and CEO, Mr. Ron Gabriel A. Peji, opened that conversation through a meaningful exploration of clinical interviewing and case history development—two foundational competencies often overshadowed by tools, trends, and technology.

At its core, the session served as a timely reminder: the quality of our clinical work is only as strong as the conversations we know how to hold.

Reclaiming the Human Element in Clinical Work

While assessment tools, diagnostic protocols, and structured inventories remain integral to our work, the webinar emphasized that the heart of psychological practice is still relational. Before any formulation can be built, and long before a diagnosis can be ethically and competently assigned, the clinician must first be able to listen—and listen well.

Participants were reminded that a good interview is not simply a sequence of questions. It is a dynamic, evolving space where the client reveals not only their story, but their inner world, patterns of relating, and experience of being understood.

Across the conversation, one message resurfaced: Clinical interviewing is not a mechanical task. It is an attuned, empathic, and ethically anchored process that requires presence more than perfection.

The Foundations of a Competent Clinical Interview

The webinar revisited the essential components of a strong clinical interview, grounding them not in textbook definitions but in lived clinical experience:

1. Attunement Beyond Technique

Clinicians often worry about “saying the right thing.” But the discussion reframed this fear, reminding participants that attunement—being fully present, responsive, and emotionally available—is more valuable than any perfectly crafted question.

2. The Courage to Slow Down

In an era that glorifies productivity, mental health practitioners are not immune to the pressure to rush. Yet true interviewing requires the opposite:

• slowing down

• allowing clients to express themselves fully

• resisting the urge to fill every silence

• being thoughtfully paced rather than hurried

3. Ethical and Professional Grounding

The participants were also reminded about professional boundaries, confidentiality, informed consent, and the delicate balance between empathy and over-involvement. These anchors ensure that clinicians remain steady and principled, especially when sessions become emotionally charged.

4. Respectful Curiosity

Professionals were encouraged to nurture curiosity that is respectful, non-intrusive, and intentionally guided—never prying, never sensationalizing, and always aligned with the client’s well-being.

When Silence Speaks: The Power of Pauses in Therapy

One of the most meaningful segments of the webinar centered on a skill that is rarely taught and often misunderstood: therapeutic silence.

Many new clinicians perceive silence as a mistake—an awkward gap to be fixed. The session reframed this assumption: Silence is not the absence of intervention; it is an intervention.

Silence can:

• give clients time to reflect

• allow emotions to surface naturally

• signal that their story is heard without interruption

• deepen the clinician-client alliance

• slow the process enough to help clients regain emotional regulation

Participants were encouraged to reflect on their own discomfort with silence, exploring how unresolved anxieties often drive clinicians to over-talk, overly-direct, or unintentionally minimize what clients are expressing.

The message was clear: A good clinician speaks when necessary—but listens, observes, and holds space with skill.

Building a Case History With Depth and Structure

Case history development may appear procedural, but the webinar contextualized it as a deeply relational task. As Mr. Peji explained, clinicians must learn to gather information with both clinical precision and compassionate presence.

Key insights highlighted:

• The case history is not just a form—it is a story.

• It must be accurate yet humanizing, structured yet sensitive to the client’s lived experience.

• Effective case histories are built through clarity of questioning, pacing, and understanding cultural and personal nuances.

• A clinician’s tone, demeanor, and phrasing significantly influence the depth and accuracy of the information shared.

Participants were challenged to move beyond checklist-style interviewing and instead embrace meaning-making—helping clients understand not only what happened, but how it shaped who they are today.

Creating Psychological Safety in the Interview Room

Across the webinar, a central theme was emphasized: Before clients can share their truth, they must feel safe. Psychological safety is cultivated not through scripts, but through:

• authenticity

• warmth

• empathy

• professionalism

• consistency

• non-judgment

The discussion captured several live interactions where participants shared vulnerability about their interviewing fears. Mr. Peji explained that instead of offering quick fixes, the clinician should provide compassion, normalization, and grounded reassurance—demonstrating exactly what clinical interviewing should feel like.

In many ways, the webinar itself became a clinical microcosm: a space where learning happened because people felt held and understood.

Clinical Interviewing in a Digital Age

The webinar did not ignore the realities of contemporary practice. With the rise of telepsychology and online consultations, clinicians must adapt without losing the relational depth essential to therapeutic work.

Key points discussed:

• managing nonverbal cues in virtual environments

• maintaining emotional presence behind a screen

• using digital tools ethically and responsibly

• pacing sessions online where delays and distractions occur

Even in digital spaces, the essence remains unchanged: clients need to feel seen, heard, and valued.

A Return to What Truly Matters

This webinar was more than a skills training—it was a call to recalibrate. A call to return to the foundational principles that make mental health work healing:

• empathy

• attunement

• silence

• human connection

• thoughtful inquiry

• professional ethics

• presence

In a world saturated with noise, mental health professionals are reminded that our greatest tool is still our ability to listen deeply.

The Way Forward for Mental Health Professionals

As Livence Mental Health continues to develop training programs, supervise emerging practitioners, and serve diverse Filipino communities, the vision grows clearer: The future of mental health is not solely defined by advanced diagnostics, modern platforms, or new therapeutic modalities.

The future belongs to professionals who can hold space—skilled, grounded, ethical, and deeply human.

Clinical interviewing is not simply a task to complete. It is an art to be embodied, refined, and passed on to the next generation of helpers.

And through trainings like this webinar, Livence Mental Health remains committed to leading that movement.

Livence Mental Health—Helping you LIVE your ESSENCE!