Active Listening

Active listening is the ability to focus completely on the speaker, understand their message, comprehend the information and respond thoughtfully.  Here are some techniques that you can use when building your active listening skills. 

Technique: Paraphrase

One technique of active listening is to paraphrase. Using paraphrases lets the other person know they have been heard while also allowing helpers to verify information. Paraphrasing is essentially taking what someone else says, turning it into your own words and reflecting it back to them. 

Paraphrase Example: 

• User: "I just feel like I don’t know what to do. I can’t go to work and so I have no money coming in. How am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to feed my children?"
• DCL: "It sounds like there are a lot of unknowns right now and you are worried about how you are going to take care of your family."

Technique: Validation

Another technique is validation. This involves validating, or affirming that people’s emotions, concerns and feelings are normal. This helps them feel less alone and out-of-control. Validation is not always in agreement with the statement, but sometimes it’s validating the underlying emotion. Here are some examples:  

Validation Examples: 

• "That makes a lot of sense…" 
• "We hear what you are saying…"
• "It is very natural to feel this way…"
• "We understand your concerns…" 

Identifying the User’s Priorities Through Active Listening 

Throughout a user interaction, there are a few key things you want to look for.

• What are their immediate needs, and that includes if they are currently unsafe. We don’t want to be probing necessarily, but it is something to listen for and we will address below what to do if someone is in an unsafe situation.
• What are their priorities? What is important to them right now?
• For services: Location, accessibility considerations
• What support is available to them?