The focus of week six for SOWK 486 is continuing our growth and engagement with communication skills. Last week we went deeper on authenticity or genuineness. We also started some focus on empathic responding. Week six is described as a lab day, because the intention is focusing on activities to help develop skills. The activities we will be doing this week include:
Additional Content
A–01: In-Class Engagement and Participation
Attend class.
In our discussion about what we have been learning, we are going to loosely follow a restorative practices format of having discussions in circles. If you are interested in some of what this entails you can watch Core Processes of Restorative Justice Circles. We won’t be implementing every part, but it is a good primer.
We will be talking about teaching empathy to our clients. Stepien and Baernstein (2006) provide a meta-analysis of research which could be helpful. You will be doing a role-play with a partner and observer. I will have copies of the Initial Session Checklist.
I’ll upload the slides as we get closer to class.
You can find the recording of all of our classes in the lecture videos for this course. You can find [Fall 2024 SOWK 486w 1 - Week 06]().
Reference
Stepien, K. A., & Baernstein, A. (2006). Educating for empathy. A review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(5), 524-530. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00443.x