A best practice in using role-playing is to:

• A. Have clients avoid role-switching
• B. Rely solely on verbal lectures
• C. Use role-playing to practice communication from various viewpoints
• D. Limit role-playing to group therapy

Answer: (C)

Role-playing is most effective when you have clients practice communication from multiple viewpoints. By stepping into different roles, they learn not only what to say but how messages land from others’ perspectives, how nonverbal cues convey meaning, and how factors like culture, power dynamics, or personal history influence interpretation. This broader practice builds empathy, flexes communication skills, and helps clients test and refine strategies for listening, expressing needs, setting boundaries, and negotiating solutions. After the role-play, a guided debrief reinforces what worked, what didn’t, and how to apply those insights in real life.

Avoiding role-switching limits perspective-taking and makes it harder to generalize skills. Relying solely on verbal lectures doesn’t provide the experiential practice needed to transfer skills to real interactions. Limiting role-play to group therapy ignores its usefulness in individual sessions and in diverse settings.