Class 2: Congruent Communication

Abstract

In this class we are moving students from primarily external awareness as typified by the noticing red and other exercises in the first class to internal awareness and demonstrating how it impacts relationships with other people including patients using the Satir communication stances. This can be a difficult step for some students to take and is occurring at an early stage in the course before the teacher has a sense of each individual student. The teacher probably does not yet know all of their names. We have found that it is particularly important to deliberately slow ourselves down and become conscious of our own internal processes in this important second class in the course. The tendency when we become anxious, particularly if we suppress the anxiety, is to speed up and teach this material superficially.