ABSTRACT
Communication skills are so powerful that they influence and shape our behaviors with one another. Family therapist Virginia Satir has suggested that “once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the single most important factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes and what happens to him in the world.” The linear, interactional, and transactional models explain how communication occurs, with each model presenting a different perspective on the process of people transmitting messages to create shared meaning. In family therapy, one of the first communication skills the therapist teaches the couple or family members is how to ask meta-communication questions. Interpersonal communication is communication that views people as unique, having feelings, and possessing value. To be an effective interpersonal communicator, you must be able to exercise flexibility to the changing requirements of even the simplest of conversations. Kindness is a quality that is foundational to the relational dimension of healthy interpersonal communication.
