It is your turn to practice using the ABC Model of Crisis Intervention! Find a friend/family member/co-worker that will allow you to practice your attending skills with them. You will sit in the same room with this person and prompt them to talk about something stressful in their life. It should NOT be a personal crisis and discussed in a general sense–as you are practicing basic listening skills and NOT counseling skills! An example may be work/school stress, managing finances, time management, work/life balance, etc.

• Please practice the following things:
  • Attending behavior, questioning, paraphrasing, clarifying, reflection, summarization.
• After your practice, respond to the following questions:
  • How did you do? Did it feel natural to use these skills?
  • Why are these skills so important to crisis response?
  • What do you want students to discuss in response to each other’s initial posts?