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

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• 20-year-old Catholic, Hispanic prenatal patient. Prenatal testing revealed anen-
  cephaly: “My doctor thinks I should have an abortion, but my priest and my
  husband are so against it.”

Instructor Note

• As an addendum to this exercise, students can be asked to describe a cross-
  cultural genetic counseling experience they were involved in or observed and to
  write three responses for that situation (i.e., primary empathy, advanced empa-
  thy, and confrontation).

Exercise 3: Role-Play

Engage in a 20–30-min role-play of a genetic counseling session with a classmate.
The role-play can be based on a patient you saw in clinic, or it can be a made-up
patient situation. During the role-play, focus on all the helping skills you’ve learned
so far. Try to include at least one advanced empathy and one confrontation response.
Audio record the role-play. Next transcribe the role-play and critique your work.
Use the following method for transcribing the session:

Counselor Patient Self-critique Instructor

Key phrases of

dialogue

Key

phrases

Comment on your own

responses

Will provide feedback on your

responses

Create a brief summary:

1. Briefly describe patient demographics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, socioeco-
   nomic status, relationship status) and reason for seeking genetic counseling.


2. Identify two things you said/did during the role-play that were effective and two
   things you could have done differently.
   Give the recording, transcript/self-critique, and summary to the instructor who
   will provide feedback.
   [Hint: This assignment encourages self-reflective practice regarding your clinical
   performance. The goal is not to do a perfect session. Rather the goal is to assess the
   extent to which you can accurately assess your psychosocial counseling skills. You
   will gain more from this exercise if you refrain from scripting what you plan to say
   as the counselor.]

Exercise 4: Advanced Empathy: Letter to Your

Genetic Counselor^2

Imagine that you and your partner have an appointment to see a pediatric genetic
counselor because your four-year-old child (your only child to date) has been diag-
nosed with autism. Several other children in the family (nieces and nephews) have

(^2) Adapted from: Slendokova ( 2005 ) and  from  research by Siemińska et  al. ( 2002 ) involving
an intervention to develop sensitivity to healthcare patients.
8.5 Written Exercises