I have certainly benefitted from the ACST course. What I valued most was as follows:

  1. Effective use of professional actors. They really made the role play real and allowed me to “practice” in a safe environment. It was certainly the closest thing I could get to having feedback from a real-life situation
  2. The course helped me to develop my skills to uncover, to understand and move towards parents/ carers/ patients’ agenda. I don’t think I’ve quite mastered this yet but I’m working on it
  3. I’m certainly more comfortable now using “silence” and have since seen the effect of it in real-life situation. The parents/ carers and patients certainly open up more and share their thoughts and feelings when we allow them to. I had previously felt that I gave others enough space but now I realize they need even MORE time
  4. Last but not least to appreciate “less is more” when it comes to communication. The ability for families to retain information is exponentially inverse the more I tell them in a single sitting! Thank you again to all the facilitators