Description
This course deals with starting and developing relationships. In this cognitive behavioural training (CBT)-based course, you will learn conversation skills, dealing with rejection, entrance and exit skills for joining and leaving groups. Choosing the meeting place and deepening the closeness of a relationship are all dealt with in a practical way. CBT is a powerful set of “thinking” tools that teach you how to “reframe” the way that you look at challenging or threatening situations so that you can respond more effectively while remaining calm and attentive.
The opening moves in any encounter can provide key opportunities for developing it into a deeper friendship or romantic relationship. You will learn how to listen for clues and hints in the early stages of building an interaction with someone that will guide you through the next phase, where you are deepening the relationship. First impressions do count – and it is helpful to be well prepared for these early stages of the interaction.
It is also true, though, that however skilled you are with people, you “can’t win them all”! Dealing with rejection is as important an aspect of CBT as succeeding in developing a relationship. Being one person’s “reject” does not in any way mean that you are a “failure” and moving on from a “no” is key to being secure in social situations.
Location can also be important in moving a relationship on and you will learn how to give yourself the best chances of success by choosing the “where” as well as the “how” of building relationships. This, together with the cognitive behavioural (CBT) techniques of deepening a relationship once it has begun, provide the basis for a firm, sustained understanding between you and your close others.
