2/2/07

On Friday in class we continued our learning of empathic listening. Brother Adams referred to listening as an iceberg. The skill which is the tip of the iceberg is usually the only part that’s seen. The underlining is your attitude towards the situation. Empathic listening is crucial when trust is low and emotion is high. You should never tell someone what to do, just listen. They will find out their own answer by communicating with you. We also learned in class that pride is enmity between you and another person. When listening you need to put your agenda aside and focus on theirs. Right now we are in the stage of conscious competence. We understand why it is essential to use empathic listening, however it is very uncomfortable for us to do. Often in the role play we get frustrated and want to probe, but we need to be patient. Lastly, we talked about our emotional bank account. It is essential to make many deposits and try to not have any withdrawals. One way to increase our EBA is to be loyal and keep our commitments.