The Veteran Supported Education Service Treatment Manual: VetSEd

Exercise 2
Active Listening 2. Get a partner and have a 2 minute discussion about going to school. 1
person is the listener and the other person is the speaker. During this discussion, the
listener can only use 20 words, once they have used 20 words the discussion is over.
Switch roles and complete the discussion again. The goal of this exercise is for the
listener to figure out how to use limited words to express active listening.
ii.
Avoiding Communication “Roadblocks” with Veterans
You want to avoid using roadblocks when communicating with Veterans. Road blocking
gets in the way of developing working relationship with Veterans pursuing educational
goals. Below is a list of 11 roadblocks to avoid using when communicating with
Veterans.
1. Criticism: ―You‘ll need to be on time for classes, you can‘t be late like you are with
me.‖
2. Name-Calling: ―We work with mentally ill cases and drug addicts.‖
3. Diagnosing: ―Veterans with a mental illness have poor sleep patterns.‖
4. Praising with Evaluation: ―You have been doing a great job taking your medications
and I know that you would never stop taking them.‖
5. Ordering: ―Go take your meds and quit complaining.‖
6. Threatening: ―If you don‘t return on time, you won‘t be able to meet with me.‖
7. Moralizing: ―It is bad to do drugs.‖
8. Excessive Questioning: ―Why didn‘t you take your meds? Why can‘t you get to our
appointment on time?‖
9. Advising: ―If I were you, I‘d take my meds and quit using drugs.‖
10. Diverting: ―You think you have problems, let me tell you about Jose.‖
11. Logical Argument: ―If you quit giving money away, you could buy supplies for
school.‖
Exercise
Road blocking. Get a partner and have a 2 minute conversation about going to school.
Use the roadblocks from the above list. Talk about how the roadblocks impaired the
discussion. Switch roles and complete the exercise again. The goal is to experience
roadblocks and how they influence the flow of a conversation.
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