Interpersonal Communication Interview

960 Words2 Pages

I decided to choose my daughter to have the interview with. She is a teenager and it seemed like a great opportunity to have a mindful conversation with her. We held this conversation at Starbucks over some pastries and an espresso. Usually when we go to Starbucks to have our refreshments, we just sit there on our phones, and other electronic devices without saying a word to each other. This time was much different, thanks to this assignment. We had fun and I was able to catch up on some lost time. We never really sit and talk, it’s always, hey or what’s up, and quick passer byes. It was not easy being mindful during this conversation. I struggled with being mindful towards her. It was hard to concentrate fully on what she was saying without …show more content…

She took it as I was trying to rush her, with me talking out of turn and she accused me of not listening during the moments that I did speak to soon. My daughter was being unmindful a great deal during our conversation. She would pick up her phone send a text while trying to talk to me and she would then ask, “what are we talking about again.” To me that indicated that she would much rather talk to someone else, and with that notion I did hurry the conversation along. Doing a lot of self- monitoring I did not notice any non-verbal mindfulness communication on my part. My daughter on the other hand, however did. She was rolling her eyes, crossing her arms and even put her head down at one point, and during some of the conversation she would cover her face up. The effect it had was that her non-verbal cues, even though it was not in words had an influence on the communication flow. Our conversation was uncomfortable during those …show more content…

One of the strategies that I used was mirroring. When she would shift her posture and slouch, I would also shift some and would not sit up as straight. I would also take a swallow of my espresso when she did hers. My daughter typically changes her tone and speed of speech according to her emotions and excitement at that given moment. I would also change my speed and tone to mimic hers. The mirroring technique worked very well, helping keep our conversation and communication more open and friendly. The other strategy that I used that was evident to our conversation was empathy. I actually put myself in my daughter’s shoes, so I could open up more and use my active listening skills more with her. I did notice that she was also listening actively because she was actually paraphrasing. Basically telling me what I had already said but using her own words in doing

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