Posted by Mitchell on January 19, 2003, at 9:23:58
In reply to Re: therapeutic conversational techniques, posted by Dr. Bob on January 18, 2003, at 16:39:45
> IMO, there's already a lot of skilled voluntary facilitation here. OTOH, there's always room for improvement. Can you suggest any descriptions of therapeutic conversational techniques?
>
> I also wonder if another factor is that this is a message board rather than a mailing list or a chat room. On a message board, threads may stay more "alive" -- sub-threads that have been dropped can more easily be picked up again. That's good if it's to provide more support or information, but not good if it's to escalate conflict.
>
> BobAsynchrony complicates group conversation, for sure. Deeper knowledge of therapeutic facilitation might help assure the skills are on hand when needed - the more people who know conflict resolution techniques, or better techniques for empathetic guided self-discovery, the more likely a best technique will be employed at the right time, or that fruitful statements will rise above less productive conversation. The current cadre of voluntary facilitators might improve their skills. Better recognition of therapeutic skills *might* increase the likelihood that group members will defer to a more skilled conversationalist rather than break an attempted consensus not to respond to a troublesome post.
That's all theoretical, of course. As for what skills should be posted, I figure if our medical schools don't have an arsenal of techniques ready to teach the public, we need to shut them down now and start training caring doctors who don't intend to monopolize the franchise to healing skills. I could make it a project (publishing therapeutic techniques, getting permission from authors OR shutting down self-serving schools), but for now I am busy with other social manipulations.
I can offer a few techniques, but they could tend to identify my personal preferences. In general, things like Rogerian empathetic listening and neurolinguistic techniques come to mind. I have a section of books that describe techniques, so I can only assume phsych professionals should have an idea what conversational skills can be best learned and applied for peer or co-counseling settings.
poster:Mitchell
thread:8766
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20021128/msgs/8873.html