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

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are impossible because of the many individual and cultural differences in patients

and their situations. Psychological attending will help you discern how patients

prefer to discuss their experiences, and you can adjust your responses accord-

ingly. When unsure, ask your patient about the general meaning of a behavior in

her or his culture.

• Attending to Yourself. Initially you may find that focusing on behaviors, which
  you typically do automatically, will make you extremely self-conscious. You
  may feel somewhat awkward and mechanical as you practice attending (and
  other) skills. Self-awareness, however, is an important first step toward develop-
  ing your genetic counseling skills. Over time and with practice, you will learn
  to relax and therefore be able to focus less on yourself and more on your
  patients.

3.8 Class Activities

Activity 1: Attending Behaviors (Think-Pair-Share Dyads)

Students respond individually in writing to four questions and then discuss their
responses with a partner:

1. What is attending?


2. As a genetic counselor, what attending behaviors do you think are helpful?


3. What attending behaviors are not so helpful?


4. Is there a cultural group that might have an attending style different from your own?

Next, pairs of students discuss their written responses.

Estimated time: 20 min.

Process
The instructor lists the four questions in four columns on the blackboard or on news-
print. Students then share their responses to each of the questions and the instructor
summarizes them under the appropriate column. Then the instructor verbally sum-
marizes major themes and presents any ideas which did not emerge from the dyads.
Estimated time: 15 min.

Activity 2: Attending (Group Discussion)

The instructor shows photographs of people and asks students to speculate about
how the people are feeling. The pictures should represent a range of emotions. Also,
to make it more challenging and to move into primary empathy, include pictures in
which the person(s) has incongruous facial expressions (e.g., an athlete who looks
as if she/he is in pain after winning a sporting event).
Estimated time: 20 min.

3 Listening tofiPatients: Attending Skills