Third, using a preoccupying issue marker,
practice empathic exploration, in triads (groups of three people, consisting of
a client, a helper and an observer).
You don’t need a long session for practicing empathic exploration; 10 to
20 minutes will do. After each
brief practice session, take a few minutes to process your experience. The person in the client role can begin
by sharing what the experience was like and what he or she found helpful or
perhaps distracting. Then the
person in the helper role can share what that experience was like, particularly
difficulties and strategies for coping with them. Next, the observer can share observations or suggestions
that occurred to him or her during the session. Finally, each person should say what he or she learned from
the practice session. After
processing, change roles and do another practice session. Generally an hour is a good length for
practicing a particular task.
Materials designed to
accompany the book Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy: The
Process-Experiential Approach to Change from APA Books.
©2003 Robert Elliott, Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, and Leslie Greenberg
http://www.process-experiential.org/learning