I think the reason I have so much resistance to the two-handed recording exercise is because it is so powerful.
It has taken doing it a lot of times before it felt like I could actually "do it"—dropping all the beliefs and stories about how it should be, how I can't do it, don't have a mentor, asking the mentor impossible questions, and so on. I think one thing that really helped was including the step of listening to the person "with the problem" after they talked.
So I was experiencing the terrible set of sensations and perspective that I label "existential despair." After lots of resistance and some procrastination, I let the person feeling this way talk uninhibited. While I listened I kept repeating "What does she need to hear?" to myself.
The compassion that arose as I (the mentor) responded to her was incredible, and I felt the whole being shift. I felt lighter. I know the point is not to feel better, but it was still lovely — and certainly helpful — to shift into compassion.