Getting to the Root: Heart Diagnosis in Counseling

Counseling Skills and Tools

The Fruit to Root diagnostic moves a counseling conversation from the presenting problem to the desires driving it. This course drills the method: what to ask, how to follow the answers downward, and how to keep going when the conversation stalls. You will generate the next question yourself repeatedly, because asking good questions is the skill.

1.5 hours

16 units

3 sections

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What You'll Work Through

Each unit is a conversation, not a page to read. The tutor asks you to explain, apply, and work with the material until it holds.

Chapter 1: Why the Heart, and How the Tree Works

Section 1.1: The Heart as the Source

The heart is the source of all behavior (Luke 6:45)
The fruit-trunk-root metaphor for the person
Why counsel must reach the root, not rearrange the fruit

Section 1.2: Fruit, Trunk, and Root

The tree metaphor: fruit, trunk, root as behavior, thoughts, desires
Fruit level: what others can readily observe
Trunk level: thought and feeling patterns tied to identity
Root level: hidden desires that must be drawn out

Chapter 2: Asking Downward

Section 2.1: The Three Diagnostic Questions

Question 1 draws out the FRUIT: 'Describe the situation and your response to it'
Question 2 draws out the TRUNK: 'What were you thinking or feeling?'
Question 3 draws out the ROOT: 'What did you want?'

Section 2.2: Generating the Next Question

Choosing which fruit-to-root layer to probe next
Turning a vague or general answer into a clarifying follow-up question
Asking the desire-exposing question that surfaces the root motive

Chapter 3: Reading the Four Hearts and Reaching the Root

Section 3.1: The Predominant Heart Attitudes

The Four Predominant Heart Attitudes: anger, foolishness, fear, despair
Matching each PHA to its characteristic root desire

Section 3.2: Naming Idols and Following a Case Down

Naming the root desire in the counselee's own words and following it down