1. Find someone in your home to use as a partner or consider calling someone on the phone. Set a timer for 90 seconds and have your partner talk about what they have learned about themselves through the COVID19 pandemic. You listen WITHOUT interrupting. When the timer beeps, your partner stops talking and you summarize their words and any feelings expressed. Discuss what it was like for you to simply listen and then reflect what you heard.

2. Conrad went to see a counselor because he was socially inept. He did not pick up on nonverbal cues, and he was not able to sustain a conversation for any length of time. Conrad’s counselor, Penelope, worked up a contract for him. First, he was to watch television without the sound and try to identify emotional expressions. Second, he was to ask three people each day in the park how they were doing and talk with them as long as he could. Conrad fulfilled his contract for the first week, but then gave it up. He said it was “too hard.”

If you were Penelope, what would you do to help Conrad get back on his contract?