All,

If you we're to break down the skill of giving readings into sets of sub skills what would you say those sub skills were?

So far I've got:

Listening
basic understanding of symbols
Effective questioning


Any other sub skills required?

Thanks

Kindness
honesty
healthy emotive state
awareness of own biases
not chasing a "hit"
imagination
story-telling

Empathy & emotional intelligence
Intrapersonal intelligence
Interpersonal intelligence
Paul Eckman's work on micro expressions
Body language
Vocal acuity
Rapport building
Listening skills
Perhaps some grounding in humanistic psychotherapy
Life experience ( not a skill set but a prerequisite nonetheless!)

Good lists from all. I'm surprised though that intuition isn't mentioned. It's one of the core skills used in not only readings but therapy/healing as well.

In Smoking Camel's list, symbol understanding is an absolute necessity. Once one begins to think that way, symbols filled with meaning are everywhere.

In Iain's list, kindness and honesty would seem obvious, but unfortunately they are not to many readers (& therapists), who often come from a power stance. Those two alone will get you a long way.

In Andy's list, I've found that what I'm assuming he means by vocal acuity is more reliable than body language for anything subtle. Body language, as described in most books, is a crude tool at best; reading subtleties in body movement requires intuition more than pre-set rules. For vocal acuity, I mean paying attention to the breathing, the vocal patterns, etc. Good training for this is to do phone-work with clients, where you have nothing else but their voice and breathing to work with (besides content, which is less important).

Of course, I'm biased as though I do readings for people, I've done therapy/healing for a far longer time.

I'd say detachment.

The ability to be devoid of ego.

The ability to discard outmoded tools.

I agree robinr that intuition is of course a key skill but the term has so many connotations that I was hesitant in including it in my initial list. Bathe more readings I do (I specialise in tree readings and graphology), the more I draw on flash images and gut feelings. I don't attribute this to any paranormal source so much as to subconscious processing of received information that has bypassed my conscious mind...but this is semantics at the end of the day.

I certainly believe that 'shut eye' readers are drawing on these same skills, albeit with less awareness of the mechanisms involved, but this by no means invalidates the material they tune into. This is an aspect of reading that fascinates me - the line between the application of trained skills and opening oneself to material that is harder to attribute.

Tom's point is key too - the ego must be placed to one side so that a reading can be an act of service rather than a platform for self aggrandisement.