© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 51
P. McCarthy Veach et al., Facilitating the Genetic Counseling Process,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74799-6_3
3.1 Definition of Attending Skills
Attending skills consist of the genetic counselor’s observations of patient verbal and
nonverbal behaviors as one way to understand what patients are experiencing and
displaying effective nonverbal behaviors to patients during genetic counseling ses-
sions. These two broad domains of attending skills are known, respectively, as “psy-
chological attending” and “physical attending” (Egan 1994 ).
3.1.1 Psychological Attending
Psychological attending is an important skill set for recognizing genetic counseling
patients’ unspoken feelings, intentions, and experiences. Psychological attending
occurs when you sense experiences, to the extent possible, through the patient’s
eyes rather than through your own. You intuit emotions, attitudes, and intentions
patients have or might have had by being in tune with their verbal and nonverbal
communications. Patients’ nonverbal behaviors may be particularly informative, as
many individuals, for example, will not directly state what they are feeling and
thinking. Thus, psychological attending relies heavily upon noticing and interpret-
ing messages from patients’ nonverbal behaviors.
Chapter 3
Listening to Patients: Attending Skills
Learning Objectives- Define attending skills and describe their functions in genetic counseling.
- Distinguish between physical and psychological attending.
- Recognize some ways in which attending skills are tailored to individual
and cultural patient characteristics, practice specialties, and service deliv-
ery modalities. - Develop attending skills through self-reflection, practice, and feedback.