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II. Making Content Responses
Construct one concise content response for each of the patient statements in Part
I. Write each response as if you were actually speaking to the patient. Be sure that
you have summarized the content.
III. Making Affect (Feeling-Oriented) Responses
Read each patient statement again. Then write down one affect response for each.
When you complete each response, read the patient statement again. Does your
response hit the most important feeling expressed? Does the response match the
intensity of feeling expressed by the patient?
Example
Patient Statement: I can’t believe that I gave this disease to my child!
Genetic Counselor: I. Guilty, remorseful, responsible, ashamed
II. So, you feel like it’s your fault?
III. It sounds like you feel ashamed[Hint: Read your content and affect responses aloud to be sure they are concise,
tentative, and convey the patient’s experience in your own words. Avoid using the
same formula when creating statements (e.g., do not begin every sentence “It sounds
like...” or “You feel...).]
Exercise 6: Primary Empathy Letter to Your Genetic Counselor^3
Imagine that you and your partner have an appointment to see a genetic counselor
because you (or your partner) had an abnormal ultrasound finding and subsequent
testing confirms the diagnosis of Down syndrome in your baby (Slendokova 2005 ).
Write a letter to the genetic counselor in which you describe your thoughts and feel-
ings, what you expect about the genetic counseling appointment, and what you want
from the counselor.
Instructor Note
- This exercise could be done as part of a journal, as a small reflection paper, or
with a dyad partner. - The exercise can be varied for any genetic counseling specialty and for any
patient indication.
(^3) Adapted from Slendokova ( 2005 ) and from research by Siemińska et al. ( 2002 ) involving an inter-
vention to develop sensitivity to health-care patients.
4 Listening to Patients: Primary Empathy Skills