@renaeden and PMS Elle:
I don't do active listening because it doesn't make sense. My younger sister did it and was a very popular person, but I am likely to drift off into the dreaming and not hear anything the person is saying.
However, when I am doing crisis work I am listening carefully because to me it is like solving a mystery and better than detective work because the other person usually wants to cooperate. You can ask they to repeat and explain things and they usually don't get offended.
You have solved a mystery for me - why the clients I saw in crisis liked me so much, vs my coworkers.
I wonder if there is a way to listen to things that might otherwise be boring such that I get the same effect?
Pyrxs is really good at some things and not so good at others. It will be interesting to look at her from that perspective. We may complement each other. For example, she can look at them, but flying pigs give me a headache.
@Calavera: it would be interesting to try to discern the effects of trauma in someone who is autistic. I bet that could right a lot of wrongs. I am thinking of how some of the autistic people I worked with were offended by something, "acted out," and then got further traumatized by being restrained. Usually that was the point at which I would see them; because the staff was heaping trauma on trauma and could no longer contain the person. Figuring out how to communicate worked in many cases, like one poor guy I saw who was clawing at his ears. The staff claimed he was psychotic, the behavior was unusual and sudden and they figured he must have gone off the deep end. He was trying to tell them something. He had an ear infection. Yet they had restrained him and were ready to send him to a psychiatric hospital.
agh. now my head hurts and its my own fault.
