Katarína Dedíková

I missed the first day of the block, so I can't really give a feedback on that. But I have noticed one difference between soft skills and Person centered communication, which is that we talked more spontaneously about topics that effects our lives rather than acting some scenarios from IT company. So I felt that it was more challenging to just listen and not trying to tell my personal opinions and stuff because I actually cared.

Shiri Markin

How to be a good active listener for kinds of people whose country is at
war/being in difficult situation :

What to avoid:

1) Judgmental: There is a lot of "fake news" and different opinions about
every conflict and war. It's okay to have a different opinion or to ask for
information about the situation, but do so with great delicacy. You should
avoid making the other person feel like they must explain something or feel
judged. These kinds of conversations can be frustrating for both sides. Always
remember that you have never lived in their country and probably don't have
full information about the war.

What to do:

1) Be open-minded: Similar to the first point about avoiding being judgmental,
when you find yourself in a situation where the person is trying to explain and
provide information and facts about their current situation, maintain an
open-minded approach and be humble. If you don't agree with them, you can move
on to the next topic without making them feel uncomfortable.
2) Be tolerant: During times of war or difficult situations, people will try to
return to their normal lives. They may appear happy and continue their everyday
routines. However, keep in mind that it may only seem that way from the
outside. Therefore, be tolerant of behaviors that may seem strange or different
from what you knew of the person before the war.
3) Find something that makes them happy through active listening: Every person
has things that bring them joy in life. Sometimes, with the right questions,
you can discover what makes the person feel good and offer them advice on how
to pursue those activities.
4) Highlight commonalities between you and the other person: Due to the
judgmental feelings that people may experience from those with differing
opinions, a person can feel isolated in the company of people who haven't
experienced the same situation. In my opinion, the best way to make them feel
more open to you is to change the topic to something that makes them feel
included, such as a common memory you've shared or a hobby you both enjoy.
5) Make the person feel needed: I find comfort in helping people with small
problems sometimes. Most people have the need to feel needed (but be sure not
to burden them with all your problems). This type of conversation can provide
the attention the other person needs while making them feel valued in the
conversation."

Celina Martinez

The two things that I remember the most about the last sitting, were, on the one hand, the non-violent communication and the template for the sentence structure how to communicate in a non-violent way and, on the other hand, the discussion about Freuds theory that everything that forms you, lies in your childhood and Carl Rogers way, that every human being tends/ has the need to self-actualize themselves. 

It is interesting to me, because Freuds more behavioristic approach, as far as I understand, seems very static, whereas Rogers more humanistic approach seems more flexible. So, I asked myself where I would position myself and I still cannot really say. While I do think, that our childhood has a huge influence on us and maybe even conditions/influences us our whole life without changing, I also think that we can grow past that and actualize ourselves. It is hard for me to find fitting examples on where I could discuss those two theories in a more practical way. 

I also made the experience this week that it is again harder than expected to communicate non-violently. Even if I tried, I feel like it didn't always work. 

Also I sometimes felt like communicating in a non-violent way, sometimes takes something away from your congruence or authenticity. If I, for example, am really angry about something a person did, it could be seen as ungenuine, if I try to say calmly that I am really angry right now. I made the experience that some people would maybe doubt your congruence then and I feel like they would prefer an emotional outburst for the sake of authenticity.

Hannah Noelle Reese

After completing the second block of this course, I can say that I am really enjoying this course. I think the environment that we have created in the classroom is very suitable for practicing the concepts that we are learning. I feel like everyone also feels this good environment and how it is very comfortable and accepting. In my experience, this has made practicing Carl Rogers’ methods of communication easier. I am especially glad that during our Thursday class we were able to practice some more active listening to really solidify that skill. I also think that our class on Friday was very productive and essential to learning more aspects of person centered communication. I enjoyed learning about the concept of basic emotions and also about how to communicate and understand emotions. It was also great to use our own conversations in order to find more natural ways of practicing the concept of UQRIA in real situations. Lastly, I thought that the small section we did about non-violent communication was very useful. In my personal life, I struggle to communicate calmly and accurately in more stressful situations, and oftentimes my words may sound accusatory or offensive. Learning more about non-violent communication has made me more confident in my ability to communicate effectively in scary or stressful situations.

Dana Takenova

When I thought that it couldn't get any better... it got better somehow. I have a strong feeling that in this block we were able to talk about even deeper topics and we had some really good discussions. I think it's because we already got to know each other and now we can share our thoughts and viewpoints more freely. The questions about feelings and emotions are so interesting to think about that I even asked my mom and some of my friends about their perception and it led to an active conversations. I found the parts about Active Listening + Sharing and Non Violent Communication especially helpful for me because it's kind of a theory I was looking for. I will try to use these steps while talking in order to make my speech more coherent (because I know that it's my weak spot, to clearly let others know what I think). Again, thank you so much for your time and effort!

Gema Vidagany Viel

In this week's block we talked about feeling and how they affect us. I was pleasantly surprised when Renata told us that this was going to be this week's topic, as sometimes it is hard for us to know what we are feeling in a certain moment. I also liked that we talked about how we handle certain "bad" emotions, as some techniques that a person uses can also help another one. The time during the course this week seemed to fly by. And, even though sometimes it felt a little bit like we were talking about nothing, the conversation suddenly turned into talking about situations in our daily lives where we have to really know what we are feeling in order to respond correctly. And we even talked about what is love, is it a feeling in itself or the cause for us to feel several feelings? This was a really interesing topic that if I have time will research more in depht. As for the book recommendations, I don't really have any, but I'm interested in seeing what the other girls say.