1. The attending skills that the genetic counselor employed. Identify the skills that you saw and explain how these contribute to the overall counseling session.
I saw different techniques on the two types of attending skills as we have just discussed in our lecture: psychological and physical attending skills. The counsellors made efficient and maintained eye-to-eye contact with the patient all throughout the counselling session. Her questions were phrased in such a way they were formal and courteous. She paid attention to her answers really well and she was able to reply appropriately and congruently, where her verbal message is in sync with her demeanor. Despite the fact that she kept her eyes focused with the patients, I noticed that she was also noting non-verbal cues from the patient; for example, the moment the patient slightly switched tone, she had to pause for a few seconds, and made a calm remark, avoiding any further remark that could possibly make the patient uncomfortable. Overall, the counsellor conveyed concern to the patient in a peaceful yet vigilant and aware of the issues being raised during the counselling.
2. The primary empathy skills that the genetic counselor employed. Identify the empathy responses of the counselor and explain how these contributed in further elucidating the thoughts and emotions of the client.
The counsellor was able to effectively demonstrate responses that were appropriate to the responses of the patient. She employed different techniques of empathy such as pursuing minimal encouragers to keep the flow and at the same time, maintaining the tone of the conversation. She also did some content and feeling reflection like how the patient felt about the diagnosis of her mother with breast cancer. She did very well in phrasing her responses in such a manner that it was not too assuming and over-identifying. She made use of close-ended and open-ended questions in exploring more ideas from the patient. Generally, the manner on how she delivered her responses, the tone, and demeanor made the conversation smooth and continuous without overdoing the feelings of the patient.
3. The effectiveness of the questions the genetic counselor asked.
Overall, the counsellor demonstrated an effective, polite, courteous, relevant, and appropriate flow of questions and responses that made the overall conversation calm, effective and focused.