Analysis of Oprah’s Therapeutic and Non-therapeutic Communication Styles

Oprah Winfrey’s interview with ten-year-old Zachary details his experience with uncontrollable anger and hearing distressing voices. An article, titled “Children Dealing with Violent Rage”, published on February 18th of 2011, gave insight to how Zach’s parents realized that Zach had a problem. They explained that starting at eighteen months old, Zach threw violent tantrums. He would thrash his room, punch holes in the walls, and become violent with those around him. There were incidents at school when he tried stabbing classmates with scissors, and incidents at home where he expressed thoughts of kill his parents. It was so easy to make Zach angry that his parents became afraid of him. Zach could not be left with babysitters due to multiple experiences of him throwing vases and glasses at them, and rubbing feces on the walls in front of them. Zach’s parents had to learn how to modify their home environment in order to prevent Zach from hurting himself and others. Once help was sought, Zach’s official diagnosis was severe ADHD, unspecified mood disorder and Tourette syndrome.

After seeking help, Zach’s parents placed him in a school for children with mental illnesses. There, Zach was taught how to cope, and how to shut-out negative and harmful thoughts, focusing on positivity. It is called the “White Light” technique. This way of coping has helped both Zach and his parents tremendously. Zach’s parents understood that their negativity only fed into Zach’s behavior, so they also learned coping techniques. Zach now rarely has outrageous or violent outbursts, and if he does, Zach and his parents know the steps to take to calm him down. Zach and his parents decided to do an interview with Oprah to allow their story to reach other children going through similar situations, and to advertise that help is not unrealistic.

Therapeutic Communication

Zach’s one-on-one interview with Oprah highlighted her therapeutic communication techniques. When speaking with Zach, Oprah was an active listener. This was shown by Oprah promptly responding to Zach, maintaining appropriate eye-contact, and using concerned body language. Oprah began the interview with an open-ended question, asking Zach to describe the hard time he’s been having. She asked several other open-ended questions that allowed Zach to elaborate on what he was feeling. For example, after Zach said that he feels negative energies when he gets angry, Oprah stated “when the negative energies come, tell me about that, explain it to me.” Often Oprah would use words like “describe this” or “tell me more about that”.

Oprah used multiple clarifying techniques including paraphrasing, restating, and exploring (Halter, 2018). Oprah stated “So I think what you are saying is that a lot of people are surrounded by negative energy, and they allow it to come in, but they don’t know that it is negative energy”, to which Zach replied “yes”. This is an example of paraphrasing, and is therapeutic because Oprah reiterating what Zach was explaining lets him know that he is being heard (Halter, 2018). Zach explained that when he feels calm and peaceful, it is the real him. This prompted Oprah to ask “this is the real you?”. Restating the specific words that Zach said ensures that Oprah is actively listening to Zach. Many of the open-ended questions Oprah asked also fit the category of exploring. Exploring encourages the interviewee to elaborate further on statements or ideas. Oprah asked Zach, “can you describe when you told your mom that voices were telling you to do bad things?”. This pushed Zach to explain in detail what he told his mom and what he was feeling during that time.

Non-therapeutic Communication

Oprah also used communication styles that are non-therapeutic. A common therapeutic

technique is to utilize silence, however, Oprah rarely left appropriate amounts of silence in between asking questions. Asking questions without leaving time for Zach to think could have made him shut out certain feelings in order to respond quickly enough. Another non-therapeutic method used by Oprah was asking multiple closed-ended questions. Often, Oprah would word her questions to where they could be answered by a simple “yes” or “no.” For example, Oprah asked Zach, “does something happen to trigger the negative energies?” Zach replied to this “yes” (Winfrey, 2011). Oprah then proceeded with a different, unrelated question. What Oprah could have done was ask an open-ended question, like “can you describe what triggers the negative energies?” This would have facilitated a more in-depth answer than “yes.”

Conclusion

Oprah interviewed Zach using both therapeutic and non-therapeutic techniques. Oprah worked as an active listener, asking open-ended questions and using clarifying techniques like paraphrasing, restating, and exploring. Oprah could have benefitted by utilizing silence to allow Zach to open up more about his feelings. Also, Oprah asked multiple closed-ended questions, which do not allow for detailed answers. Overall, Oprah had a successful interview regarding the fact that it fulfilled the purpose of letting Zach share his story.