Nondirective Listening Techniques, Nondirective Listening Responses

• The way you ask a client for a summary should be supportive. Specifically: “I’m

interested in what you feel has been most important of all you’ve covered today.” Or, “How would you summarize the most important things you’ve talked about?” 70 Listening and Relationship Development Table 3.1. Summary of Nondirective Listening Responses and Their Usual Effects Nondirective Listening Response Description Primary Intent/Effect Attending behavior Eye contact, leaning forward, Facilitates or inhibits spontaneous head nods, facial expressions, client talk.

etc.

Silence Absence of verbal activity. Places pressure on clients to talk.

Allows “cooling off” time. Allows interviewer to consider next response.

Clari?cation Attempted restating of a client’s Clari?es unclear client statements message, preceded or followed and veri?es the accuracy of what by a closed question .

Paraphrase Re?ection or rephrasing of the Assures clients you hear them accucontent of what the client said. rately and allows them to hear what they said.

Sensory based Paraphrase that uses the client’s Enhances rapport and empathy.

paraphrase clearly expressed sensory modalities.

Nondirective Restatement or rephrasing of Enhances clients’ experience of emre?ection of feeling clearly stated emotion. pathy and encourages their further emotional expression.

Summarization Brief review of several topics Enhances recall of session content covered during a session. and ties together or integrates themes covered in a session.THE PULL TO REASSURANCE Taken together, attending skills and nondirective listening techniques could be considered “nice” behaviors. They involve politely listening to another human being, indicating interest, tuning into feelings, and demonstrating a wide range of caring behaviors.