Summary
Gaya is gathering information while Sophie begins to share a picture of what is going on for her. What information is Gaya attending to? What is the primary thrust of Sophie's sharing, from Sophie's point of view? What do you see in Sophie's nonverbals that tell you how she is responding to the way Gaya is attending to her story? What aspects of the counselor's practice might you have done similarly/differently? Hopefully the shortcomings in Gaya's attending practices here was not too difficult to pick out. The demonstration is unrealistically exaggerated to paint a clear picture of the difference between 1. gathering information and 2. listening to a person express their lived experience. Sophie is not currently interested in the minute details, but rather is intent on conveying the stresses she is currently under. These are all missed by Gaya who is listening for factual content alone.