Thank you for being willing to share your experiences with past trauma and how they are impacting your perspectives on the material we are reviewing. When I first watched the video earlier in the week, I thought “oh yes, I remember the attending skills” from my undergraduate education in social work. Then I was reminded in a very concrete way that there is more to attending behaviors than just eye contact, attentive posturing, and reflection skills.
Then I met with a mother involved in a severe child abuse case this week in her home environment. She walked into the room, sat very far back in the chair diagonal from me, and never made eye contact while we talked. It this case it was important for me to match her posture and nonverbal cues