When trying to communicate with clients, oftentimes there are barriers that prevent effective communication. Nonverbal barriers include facial expressions, posture, voice, and physical proximity to the client, while verbal barriers include inherently destructive verbal responses and counterproductive patterns of communication.

Counterproductive patterns of communication are barriers that prevent effective communication with clients, and they contain these sub-categories:

1. Inappropriate use of questions
2. Inappropriate or excessive interruption
3. Dominating interaction
4. Fostering social interaction with a client
5. Passive responding
6. Parroting and overuse of phrases or cliches
7. Dwelling on the remote past
8. Inappropriate use of self-disclosure

One type of communication pattern that is never acceptable is dominating the interactions with the client. A dominating behavior is where a counselor will direct multiple closed-ended questions towards the client. Also, a dominating behavior may include the counselor thrusting too much advice on the client, pressuring him/or her strongly to progress, arguing with him/or her for a long time about certain points, or striving to control the relationship in other ways. In this category, the counselor may also present the image that he/or she is omniscient or infallible, often causing the client to withdraw emotionally. This leads to a resentful relationship between the counselor and the client that is one-up/one-down. A general rule that will help the counselor to not dominate the counseling session is by allowing the client to speak and contribute more to the discussion than the counselor.