Active Listening

Active listening is a crucial component to have when it comes to strengthening our interactions with others and the meaning and feelings that all parties take away. Particularly as individuals, we are very aware of how others engage with us and I believe we all have a sense of being able to deduce whether or not we’ve genuinely been heard when talking with someone. Active listening doesn’t consist of perfecting one or two skills, but instead involves an array of skills that we can use to strengthen our practice and engagement with clients. In this journal, I will be discussing several active listening skills that I used effectively, as well as a few that I had more challenges with, during a 15-minute interview with a close friend of mine.

Upon my friend arriving and sitting down how they felt most comfortable, I made sure to sit across from him, squarely facing each other; my posture was open and as a person who likes to sit with their arms crossed fairly often as it feels most comfortable to me, I made a conscious effort to not do so, instead choosing to keep my arms relaxed at my sides or on my lap; I leaned forward slightly to help affirm that I was genuinely interested in what my friend was saying; I established eye contact frequently along with accompanying nods or smiles; lastly, I made sure to relax by very naturally engaging in SOLER instead of constantly trying to force myself to “do this” or “lean forward more” or “watch the posture!” as then I would end up more focused on trying to exact SOLER then actually effectively incorporating it organically into my listening skills while genuinely hearing what my friend had to