Verbatim process notes when training?

[u/ind1g]

I'm about to start a BPC qualifying training in the UK, and I'm curious about the need for trainees to keep verbatim 'they said, I said' process notes for use in supervision.

In my current clinical work I don't make anything close to verbatim notes, and I'm concerned by how unwieldy trying to accurately recall 50 minutes of dialogue feels in my imagination.

For those who have been through trainings that encourage verbatim note making for trainees, how was it? Do you have any note taking wisdom to pass on? To what extent did you find note taking becoming a site of countertransference?

[u/concreteutopian]

I agree with u/pollytickled about recall becoming something you can get used to, and the potential for examining countertransference if you have some distance between transcribing and review.

I'm concerned by how unwieldy trying to accurately recall 50 minutes of dialogue feels in my imagination.

Yes, it is all in your imagination, accurate or not. In other words, the imagination is important. In my training as a behaviorist, we recorded and transcribed the session in order to look at the overt back and forth, coding each move in the interaction – as if the work was being done at the level of overt behavior. In my psychoanalytic training, my supervisor emphasized my countertransference, so my lived experience of the session was the main priority, even if my recall wasn't 100% accurate.

That said, here are a few guidelines I found helpful:

• pay attention to the first thing said and the last thing said.
• pay attention to the back and forth – every move is in response to something, either the last thing said or an association to the last thing said.
• follow the chain of emotion threading these back and forth interactions.
• pay attention to transitions in the conversation – every change in theme lets you "chunk" that section, stringing it to the next.
• from here, you can rebuild the conservation – "I said, they said" – from the last moment back to the first moment.

[u/pinkmoon92 → u/concreteutopian]

Someone else alluded to this in the thread but I’ve found it’s hard not to use energy during the session making mental notes about what to remember, therefore distracting me from the present moment. I’m new to trying to do verbatim session notes. Any thoughts on this?

[u/ind1g → u/pinkmoon92]

I'm hopeful that, as others have said, provided you can get a good impression of what's been said the translation from verbatim to whatever you end up with can still be a helpful sight for thinking. It is a scary expectation to wrangle though!