Facilitating the Genetic Counseling Process Practice-Based Skills, Second Edition

18

assess student depth of understanding of basic skills and concepts. We’ve found that
students become more caught up in a live interview, rather than viewing a video.
They also benefit from sitting quietly and intently observing the genetic counseling
interaction. A live demonstration allows for an optional activity—asking the genetic
counselor and/or patient to remain at the conclusion of the session and inviting stu-
dents to pose questions to them about the interaction.
The third activity, Integration of Skills: Stimulus Questions (see Appendix 8 ),
involves a list of questions that stimulate students to consolidate their learning in the
course; we use this exercise during the last class session. The fourth activity,
Personal Reflection about Genetic Counseling Paper (Appendix 9 ), requires stu-
dents to articulate in writing their perspective regarding genetic counseling. This
paper, which comprises our final course assignment, asks students to consolidate
their self-reflection about activities completed earlier in the course and allows them
to assess their professional strengths and growth areas specific to clinical practice.

1.5 Closing Comments

Teaching and supervising genetic counseling students are skills that will improve
with practice and experience. At their best, training and supervision are continuous
learning processes for both teachers/supervisors and their students. Learning is
enhanced through a variety of activities and exercises, a willingness to take risks,
continual reflection upon one’s experiences, and consideration and incorporation of
feedback into one’s practice. Keep in mind that helping is as much an art as it is a
science, and every genetic counselor has a highly personalized style of helping.
Encourage students to talk with their clinical supervisors about why different genetic
counselors in different settings approach genetic counseling differently. Reflection
upon these differences will assist students in developing their own individual styles.

Appendix 1.1: Basic Counseling Skills

Attending

Physical attending Counselor nonverbal behavior

Psychological attending Counselor attention to patient nonverbal behavior

Empathy and Confrontation

Primary empathy

(content)

Reflection of surface content of patient’s experience

Primary empathy (affect) Reflection of patient’s surface feelings

Advanced empathy Reflection of patient’s underlying experience

Confrontation Challenge to patient’s perceptions, beliefs, viewpoint

1 Guidelines forfiBook Users: Instructors, Supervisors, andfiStudents