The human service worker is on the phone with a woman, the victim of child abuse. The woman tells how she has felt recently, how she needed to call, and then sighs and says, “Oh, I don’t know how to begin.” The worker asks, “Did your father do this to you?” What open question would you have asked to help the woman start telling the story in her own way? 

Above are some vignettes in which the worker asks closed questions. Write an open question you think might work better in each situation, and be prepared to tell why you think the closed question is not useful.