Active Listening Skills

Question 1

Open-Ended Questions

Answer 1

DESIRABLE

Question 2

Feelings Focused Responses

Answer 2

DESIRABLE

Be sure to attend to feelings at least 50% or more of the session.

Question 3

Cognition-Focused Responses

Answer 3

DESIRABLE

Question 4

Clarifying or Clarification

Answer 4

DESIRABLE

Question 5

Reflection

Answer 5

DESIRABLE

Mirroring client responses focusing on either verbatim, feelings, thoughts, content, themes.

Question 6

Immediacy

Answer 6

DESIRABLE

Question 7

Use of Self

Answer 7

DESIRABLE

Not self-disclosure: I feel sad as I hear you speak about this…I’m aware I’m feeling protective of you right now.

Question 8

Linking

Answer 8

DESIRABLE

Joining themes of past conversations or patterns to other similar themes currently.

Question 9

Silence

Answer 9

DESIRABLE

Use of the quiet or important pauses in counseling to emphasize the importance of the feelings, insight, etc.

Question 10

Interpretation

Answer 10

DESIRABLE

Effective use of summarizing a theme, or conceptualizing, and sharing your hypothesis with the client

Question 11

Summarizing, Summarization

Answer 11

DESIRABLE

Can be of a long list that the client has presented, or can be at the end of a session, or at the end of a counseling episode.

Question 12

Reframing

Answer 12

DESIRABLE

This is a type of re-interpretation which is to hold up a metaphorical mirror or “painting” but set in a different frame.

“You say that you feel like you let your friend down, but I’m wondering if perhaps your expectations were so high that you couldn’t possibly have met those demands that you places on yourself.”

Question 13

“Tell me…”

Answer 13

DESIRABLE

Statements that are a variation on an open-ended question designed to elicit an expansive response. Another variation could be “Help me to know…”

“Tell me what that was like for you.” “Tell me what frightens you about the situation.” “Tell me what your first reaction was.”

Question 14

Tracking

Answer 14

DESIRABLE

A type of active reflection that might use a variety of the techniques above, but the key goal is to stay on track with the client. You the counselor pick up where the client ended and continues seamlessly. It is a form of synchronization. Use tracking to avoid the “popcorn approach” or the “rat-a-tat-a-tat” or the “twenty-questions” approach. Tracking is like sorting a ball of yarn, you have the yarn, and then the client has the yarn…or some people might think of this as using “talking stick” It is a sequence of communication that builds upon itself, rather than a fragmented “52 card pick up”

Question 15

Leading and Pacing

Answer 15

DESIRABLE

In a non-emergency or crisis situations, the client does most of the leading, and the counselor most of the pacing. Only with young children, or with intellectually differently-abled persons, or persons in crisis or emergency, should the counselor lead more than the client.

Question 16

Presupposition

Answer 16

DESIRABLE

The counselor assumes, based on something the client has shared, that the client would have a feeling or reaction to it.

Question 17

Closed-Ended Questions

Answer 17

USE SPARINGLY

Most useful when client is in crisis or emergency state, or with very young clients or persons with intellectual difficulties.

Question 18

“How does that make you feel?”

Answer 18

USE SPARINGLY

No more than one per every two sessions.

Question 19

Self-Disclosure

Answer 19

USE SPARINGLY

Question 20

Problem Solving

Answer 20

USE SPARINGLY

Instead of helping the client to solve the problem, focus more on how the client can discern their own discernment for how can discover a problem-solving strategy of one’s own design. It is a bit like the adage, I can feed someone a fish, or I can teach them how to fish.

Question 21

Action Planning

Answer 21

USE SPARINGLY

Action planning might also be considered Treatment Planning. Action planning and Treatment Planning are an essential part of counseling and it is related to successful counseling outcomes. Action planning is part of problem-solving there is a time and important pacing consideration for when action planning is best. Counseling should contain lots of process orientation, especially leading up to the stage/timing at which action planning and problem solving are appropriate. While outcome orientation is very important and highly related to active listening and attending skills.

Question 22

Interpretation

Answer 22

USE SPARINGLY

It is not advisable to tell the client what their experience is, however, sometimes patterns emerge that may not be visible or conscious to the client. An interpretation may be helpful to the client in linking themes or patterns together.

Question 23

Confrontation

Answer 23

USE SPARINGLY

Sometimes confrontation is appropriate, but only sparingly.

Question 24

Probing

Answer 24

USE SPARINGLY

Deeper form of clarification, but without becoming confrontative.

Question 25

Double Question within one

Answer 25

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

Question 26

Judgment

Answer 26

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

Judgmentalism, no.

Question 27

Values Statement

Answer 27

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

A values statement or a values judgment is judgmental, and lacks the quality of Unconditional Positive Regard. Use only with care, for instance, when you are concerned about the client’s welfare and safety. Values statements at any time should be devoid of imposing one’s personal values, attitudes, and opinions on the client.

Question 28

Leading Question

Answer 28

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

This type of question is kind of like what a prosecuting attorney might ask of someone on the witness. It os a b it of a trap-like question and seems to communicate that the counselor has an agenda.

Question 29

“Why Questions”

Answer 29

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

Refrain from using “Why” questions. It can result in the client feeling defensive.

Question 30

Broken Record

Answer 30

MOSTLY UNDESIRABLE

It is preferable to make each response unique. Avoid sounding like a broken record. Find alternate phrasing to ask similar questions or to reflect.