Traditional Responses

On Thursday, we talked a bit about the traditional responses people give when someone discloses an issue they are having, as well as how they are not always the best ways to respond. I found this interesting because just learning about ways that different families can function, how to resolve conflict, or how to notice when things are going bad does not mean that we can instantly be able to help other people. An important point made was that now we have some basis of information to help families, but we still need to learn a lot about how to interact with the people we are working with, and how to provide the environment that will be most helpful for those seeking it.

I also enjoyed the clips from the movie Antwone Fisher. It was very engaging to think about the representations of therapists we have in the media, and why what they do is good and why it is bad. I am sure that there are a lot of people who still fall back on these traditional responses even after discussing how they are not always helpful - it seems like it would take a lot of thought and practice to have a first response that is not one of the traditional ones.