When you walk into my therapeutic training room, the first thing you will notice is that it is not a typical office.
You’ll note that I intentionally have my furry assistant, my certified Therapy Dog, present in my office for the purpose of coaching the importance of acknowledging what is within your immediate environment.
I have mirrors mounted in different directions, so that you can observe their body language and facial expressions while you practice non-verbal skills for successful social interactions with others.
When instructing on using socially appropriate tone or volume of voice with others, if you need additional feedback for how others are hearing you, one tool that I use is to record your voice so you can hear yourself to be aware of how others are hearing you. When you adjust your voice tonality or volume, you can be socially more successful with others.
I also utilize YouTube videos as visual teaching strategies to help you read others non-verbal body language. I do this by turning the video volume off so that you can focus on the non-verbal communication messages of the actors. I use videos as a visual supplement to my verbal skill instruction.
These are a few examples of some of the “tools” that I have in my coaching “toolbox”.