Assertiveness Training

•Goal: Assertiveness means standing up for your personal rights and expressing thoughts, feelings and beliefs in direct, honest and appropriate ways. Being assertive involves taking into consideration your own and other people’s rights, wishes, wants, needs and desires and helps facilitate effective communication and goal achievement.

 

•Present the evidence: Assertive behavior has been shown to facilitate effective interpersonal skills by maintaining a level of interpersonal demeanor adaptive to positive interactions which facilitate goal achievement.

 

•Demonstrate the technique: ~The Stuck Record technique employs the key assertive skill of 'calm persistence'.  ~Fogging is a useful technique if people to use when people are behaving in a manipulative or aggressive way.  Rather than arguing back, fogging   aims to give a minimal, calm response using terms that are placating but not defensive, while at the same time not agreeing to meet the demands   of the other person.

 

•Opportunity to practice: ~The Stuck Record technique involves repeating what you want, time and time again, without raising the tone of your voice, becoming angry, irritated, or involved in side issues. Continually repeating a request will ensure the discussion does not become side-tracked and involved in irrelevant argument. The key is to stay calm, be very clear in what you want, stick to the point and not give up. Accept a compromise only if you are happy with the outcome.  ~The fogging technique involves agreeing with any truth that may be contained within statements, even if critical. By not responding in the   expected way (which would be defensive or argumentative), the other person will cease confrontation since the desired effect is not being   achieved. When the atmosphere is less heated, it will be possible to discuss the issues more reasonably. Fogging is so termed because the   individual acts like a 'wall of fog' into which arguments are thrown, but not returned.

 

•Suggestions for use (when, how): When others are angry, hostile, defensive, or manipulative or when you need to have your position heard or stand up for yourself.

•Potential barriers to use and how to overcome: Aggressive or manipulative behavior is a barrier and is overcome by not becoming side-tracked or hostile and not escalating the negative interactions and emotions.