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Mental Health Nursing · Chapter 1

The Say-It Bench

Therapeutic communication is a set of learnable moves, and the non-therapeutic ones are just as predictable — they nearly always come from the nurse's own discomfort. For each of the nine statements, choose what you would actually say. Every one of the four options is then named: the technique it uses, or the trap it falls into.

The exchange

The person says

What do you say?

What each response does to the conversation

Pick a response firstThere is no penalty for choosing a trap — every option is explained either way, and the traps are the ones you will hear yourself using on a hard shift.

Your technique log

0 of 9 exchanges answered
Countertransference check. When you notice irritation, dread before a room, or a wish to be the one nurse who finally reaches this person, you have found data about yourself — not a finding about the patient. Take it to supervision, not to the chart.