When I worked at the Rape Crisis Center I went through advocate training three full times. I didn’t flunk our or anything. The first time was before my internship officially started. I wanted to already be involved so I went through a shorter training to qualify to volunteer on the RAINN online hotline. I did that over the Christmas break.
The second time was the full 40 hour training so I could qualify as a hospital advocate and hotline operator.
The third time was a few years into my employment when the Office of the Attorney General mandated a new 40 hour training to certify us.
I have stories for days from the cases I’ve seen, but I’ll save those for another time. I’m going to talk about why I was a good hotline operator.
I was taught and practiced a thing called active listening. It’s where you listen to what a person says while not planning your response. The speaker is what you focus on. You listen to what they say, acknowledge that you hear them and let them continue to talk.
By active listening, you are able to remember things they told you if they ever call back. Did the caller mention they were in school? Ask how the semester is going this time.
The difference between active listening and what you normally do is when someone says something like “I took a trip to New York”, normally you would be preparing your response about also going to New York.