Nondirective Listening Responses, Directive Listening Responses

Negative attending behavior consists of a wide range of annoying behaviors, including any positive attending behavior displayed excessively. Considerable cultural and individual differences exist among clients regarding the amount and type of eye contact, body language, vocal qualities, and verbal tracking they prefer. To improve communication and attending skills, beginning interviewers should seek feedback from their peers and supervisors.

Beyond attending behaviors, interviewers employ many different nondirective listening responses-including silence, clari?cation, paraphrasing, nondirective feeling re?ection, and summarization. Each nondirective listening response is designed to facilitate client self expression. However, even nondirective listening responses in?uence or direct clients to talk more about some topics than others.

Directive interviewer responses are de?ned as responses that clearly bring the interviewer’s perspective into the session. Interviewers can be too directive, leaving clients feeling as if they have had no control in the interaction. They can also be too nondirective, leaving clients feeling lost and suspecting that the interviewer is evasive or manipulative. Generally, directive interview responses are advanced techniques that encourage clients to change their thinking, feeling, or behavior patterns. Therefore, most directives should be used after an adequate clinical assessment has occurred.

Directive listening responses include interpretive re?ection of feeling, interpretation, questioning, feeling validation, and confrontation. These techniques involve the therapist’s indicating or pointing out particular issues for clients to focus on during therapy.