Final answer:
Good speaking skills help a counselor in creating a trustful and empathetic environment, essential for effective therapy with trauma survivors.
Step-by-step explanation:
Good speaking skills are essential for a counselor in creating a trusting relationship with a new patient who has survived a traumatic experience and is feeling fearful and untrusting. Through the use of empathetic, nonjudgmental, and patient language, counselors can facilitate a form of "healthy talk." This therapeutic speech promotes notions of personhood and responsibility, as observed by Anthropologist Summerson Carr. Furthermore, considering the survivor population at Fort Bend Women's Center, who have often experienced multiple traumas, establishing a culture of trust is crucial to the therapeutic process.
In practice, a counselor would use clear, concrete language and nonaggressive terms to connect with the patient, helping them feel understood and safe. For example, swapping "Why would you say that?" with "Can you explain to me what motivated you to say that?", allows for more open communication. To build trust, it is important that survivors feel their information is confidential and that the counseling will not harm them. Aligning with this approach, a counselor's adept speaking abilities can significantly aid in creating a productive dialogue and fostering trust, essential for effective therapy with trauma survivors.