Social Work Concepts: What is an Active Listening

Active listening is a technique used by many professionals across a wide range of job categories. This technique requires the listener to focus and comprehend what the speaker is saying. As a social worker active listening is very important because you need to listen, understand and evaluate helpee. This is important because as a social worker people may rely on you to evaluate certain situations and come up with a solution. The purpose of active listening is to read every message the helpee is sending off. It’s reading the body language, non-verbal’s and the emotion and context they speak about. If a client is sending off different non-verbal’s then what they may be speaking, it may be harder for the helper to believe what the client is verbally communicating. Sometimes the tone of voice can confuse/challenge what the main message is that is trying to be delivered. In cases such as these, the helper may want to ask some more open ended questions to get the helpee to open up about their issues. This is one of the reasons active listening is crucially important in a profession such a social work.

Some skills used in active listening are: non-verbals, body language, and the speaker’s tone of voice. Non-verbal behaviour is very similar to how we would use punctuation. Facial expression is very important in non-verbal communication. Although this may be silent, much like punctuation, they are very important in the dialogue. As an example, John is a high school counselor and he has a student who discloses about their use of a narcotic. If John were to raise his eyebrows, become wide eyed and respond in a subtle shocking matter the student may react negatively, become closed off and begin to reply to his questions with short responses. John has now lost the trust and the opportunity to help a student reaching out. The student could possibly feel judged, this is one of the major reasons why non-verbal behaviours are vital to someone in a helping profession.

Another important skill in active listening is body language. Body language although very similar to non-verbal’s it is different because body language is not quite as detail oriented as a non-verbal signs might be. As an example non-verbal’s could be a wide eyed expression or sharp tone of voice however body language is the way a person might present their physical body. Body language is key when assessing a helpee. Another active listening skill is paraphrasing. This skill requires you to listen deeply to what your client is saying and to restate in your own words what he or she has said for better understanding of the context. To use a skill like paraphrasing, you would re-state what your helpee is saying so they can know that you were truly listening while they were speaking. Doing so clears understanding between helper and helpee. You want to let your client know that you are here to help and you’re taking their words seriously. Next to this is reflecting feeling; having this skill permits you to validate the helpees feelings and builds repore. This is very important because this allows for further comfortability and openess to occur as visits continue. The tone of a speaker’s voice is also very key when discussing active listening. Tone of voice is really important because having the appropriate tone to the situation can drastically determine how much the person speaking to you will want to disclose. While speaking about a party the speakers tone of voice should not be dulled or muted. Just the same as when speaking about a death, having an excited or rambunctious tone may create defensiveness from the other speaker involved.

Tone of voice can also contribute to the context of the conversation, the tone can contradict or emphasize what is being said. For example, One time my sister and I we having an argument and things got out of control. I slammed the door and yelled at her to “Leave me alone”. My sister didn’t come back to see me for a few hours. My tone of voice made her believe what I was saying was true. This is a great example of how to use tone of voice. Tone of voice, body language and non-verbal communication are all very important skills to acquire when learning about active listening. My personal experience when it comes to active listening is quite limited. I listened before but just recently I have begun to be more aware of my body language and the way I give feedback. There have been a few instances where I’ve had to use these sets of skills. I remember when my friend was at his lowest, he would speak to me about his mental illness and the struggles he faced in his daily life; we would often stay up late together and talk about life. I would listen to what he had to say, watching his movements and the way he would bow his head during difficult topics and look at me with almost hopeful eyes talking about the future and what it would hold for him. I made sure to ask open ended questions so I could hear more come from him than me, just so he could get things off his chest if he agreed to continue to talk about his feelings. I would paraphrase to get a better understanding of what he was talking about, so that he may feel comfortable and understand that I truly cared. Because I did; he’s like a brother to me. Using the skills of active listening I was able to help him, however I will be more conscious of my own body language and non-verbal communication now that I am aware of the implications that it can heave on the conversation.

Now that I am aware of the active listening inventory I will be more conscious when speaking to people and begin implementing those skills into my professional interactions. My personal change plan in active listening will definitely to be more aware of my non-verbals. I have a hard time with body language and facial expression because I am so high anxiety, I am most definitely always putting on a monotone expression, fidgeting, and rocking back and forth. I am aware that I do these things, however, they are very hard to control because anxiety disorders are hard to control. I keep a hard face to avoid large interaction, and shake or fidget due to discomfort. The reason I have to watch for these is because they can confuse who ever I’m speaking with. If My body language and tone of voice does not match, it will send mixed signals. It could have nothing to do with the individual, and he or she will begin to think I am not being genuine and am impatient from shaking my leg, or fidgeting my fingers. In reality, I genuinely enjoy their company, and want to continue conversing with them, but they would receive a different message. I want to better myself at non verbal communication because I am very closed off in large groups, and slightly more relaxed with one on one interactions when I should be open and relaxed in all or most interaction to promote the same positive energy from others. I want to push my self to always present a clear message. I do believe that I will get better with time and practice.