What strategies do you use to help your clients/students feel welcome and engaged?
Learning names is a huge one! Getting to class ahead of time so you can connect with students and learn more about them is ideal. I like to keep a notepad so I can make notes about the names of my students, tricks to remember their name and something about them. Then before the next class I review it before heading to class.
Remember their birthdays, anniversaries of deaths of loved ones or pets, names of kids or grandkids, introduce them to others in class if it’s their first class, highlight some things in common they may have with someone in class, encourage them with friendly eye contact such as a wink during the challenging times in class or in a session, and really listen to what they say and most importantly HOW they say it (that will give you very good clues about them and their needs).
