Transforming the avoidance of violence into emotional steering competence

Presentation of the pilot training for TES trainers and volunteers

 

Stefan SCHUMACHER (Vice-President IFOTES)

Diana RUCLI (Director IFOTES)

TES volunteers experience every day on the phone the need of managing their own emotions and get properly in contact with those of the callers, especially in the case of aggressive communication and behaviours of the callers, and in calls that have a content related to violence. Usually because of the inner value of a peaceful personality and the fear towards violent situations, the attempted solution in confronting situations is the avoidance of aggression and anger that mostly leads to more fear and uncertainty.

The main chance to improve the quality of listening services is taking care of copying and emotional skills of listeners and give them the tools to better deal with difficult calls. This can be reached through qualitative training and the development of effective communication strategies.

IFOTES, in partnership with E4P Foundation, created a new training concept, based on the Brief Strategic Approach of Scuola di Arezzo, that can help volunteers to deal with emotions of aggression and violence, both of themselves and of the callers. 

The pilot training has been tested with the volunteers of the centres of Telefono Amico Padua and Venice (Italy) and TSO Hagen, Bochum and Dortmund (Germany). The concept of the training and the results of the pilot phase will be presented in this lecture. From the time of the congress the training will be made available to all IFOTES members.