A man is waiting for his Social Security disability check to start. He has a serious heart condition and has been told he should not be out in extremely cold or hot weather. You stop by on a home visit and discover he is out on a cold day shoving piles of snow off the driveway. He tells you it is not that cold and this is not “shoveling.” You use an I-message to express your concern and initiate an exchange of views. 

In the vignettes that above, you have a problem a concern about something affecting the client. For each of these situations, construct an I-message from you to the client. Be sure to follow the rules for confrontation. Make certain you sound tentative and ask for collaboration. Rather than a single sentence, try using several sentences to soften and put forth your ideas.