Counselling and Psychotherapy Research

Running head: COUNSELLING SKILLS
COUNSELLING SKILLS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

COUNSELLING SKILLS1
Active Listening.
In counselling, active listening refers to the act of listening attentively to the client
besides internalising and interpreting everything they say (Robertson, 2005). People in
counselling sessions attend these sessions because they are suffering from certain issues in
their lives that they need some professional guidance solving. In that aspect, the role of a
counsellor becomes that of paramount importance and the first thing that they pay attention to
is what the clients have to say (Nelson-Jones, 2015). Active listening thus becomes the most
primary approach to a counselling session. Even though active listening is not exclusive to
therapy and finds use in a multitude of professions like business and medicine, its use in
therapy has been given a prime status because of the following reasons:
1. Active listening helps the therapist slowly and steadily progress into the cognitive
depths of the client thereby revealing potentially important information (Brownell,
1986).
2. Active listening reassures the client that the therapist has his full attention to the case
as well as the client and is willing to engage fully in the client’s problems in order to
solve those (Stickley & Freshwater, 2006).
3. Active listening builds trust, confidence and rapport between the therapist and the
client which makes the process of counselling extremely feasible for both parties
concerned (Brownell, 1986).
Theoretically, active listening has three primary aspects.
The first aspect is that of comprehending where the listened actively listens to what
the speaker is saying and analyses the statements without getting distracted by external
thoughts and diversions (Brownell, 1986).
The second aspect is that of retaining. It entails that the listener remembers everything
that the speaker has said and informed the listener about (Robertson, 2005). Retention is

COUNSELLING SKILLS2
important as it enables proper interpretation and conveyance of the message. While some
people actively use their memory skills to enhance the process of retention, some also resort
to note taking.
The final aspect is that if responding. It refers to the act of providing verbal and nonverbal
feedback to the client indicating that the listener is not only hearing unemotionally, but also
understanding what the client is saying.
In addition to the aforementioned aspects, there are certain cues in between that aids
the process of active listening (Robertson, 2005). These cues can be both verbal and
nonverbal. Some verbal cues include filler statements like “Mm hmm”, “how strange”, “I
see” etc. some nonverbal cues include nodding, smiling, maintaining appropriate eye contact
and a lean forward posture.
Developing active listening skills is a very personal behavioural approach that we as
counsellors should put active effort into developing those skills (Nelson-Jones, 2015). An
appropriate body posture including proper gestures throughout the session indicates that we
have full attention towards the client. We cannot learn active listening but we can reinforce it
in ourselves. A good communication skill is backed by a high level of self-awareness. It is
advised that understanding our own personal style of communication, merging that with the
requirements of the counselling session and making minor modifications and adjustments
based on the specific client requirements helps build good and lasting impression with the
client (Brownell, 1986).
Reflecting/Paraphrasing
While listening forms the crux of therapeutic communication, an effective way to
emphasize the outcomes of active listening is through reflection and paraphrasing. It shows
that as therapist, one has not only identified what the client is saying but also what feelings
and emotions are associated with everything that the client speaks (Nelson-Jones, 2015).