Empathic or active listening training

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · Rogers, Farson · 1957 · Chicago

What it is

Empathic or active listening training is a skills-training approach, not a standalone psychotherapy. It teaches listeners (therapists and trainees, parents, couples, managers, peer supporters) to understand another person's full meaning and say it back, without evaluating, advising or steering.…

Format

• Phase 0: Purpose and fit (1 short meeting or the first part of session 1). Goal: agree who will listen to whom and in which situations. Check that the learner can take on a listening role, and screen out situations where listening alone is the wrong tool, such as acute risk, active violence, or a…
• Phase 1: Rationale and attitudes. Goal: the learner understands the self-picture rationale. They also understand that the technique fails without the basic attitudes: respect for the person's worth, interest in their viewpoint, and trust in their capacity for self-direction. Format: brief didactic…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Phase 2: Attending and basic (passive) listening. Goal: reliable attending behaviour (eye contact, vocal quality, verbal tracking, body language), silence, acknowledgments and door openers. Format: microtraining units of about 30–45 minutes per skill. The cycle is a short recorded baseline interview, reading, video models of good and poor practice, self-observation, a plan made with the trainer, and a second…
• Typical length. The microtraining studies used one 30–45-minute unit per skill. RE's basic programme is 10 sessions: sessions 1–3 cover rationale and demonstration, then supervised practice; 4–5 continue practice and fix a weekly home-practice time; 6 prepares home practice; 7 reviews home recordings; 8–9 are consultative and spaced; 10 covers evaluation and maintenance planning. The length of a Gordon P.E.T. or…
• Version followed: Rogers & Farson, Active Listening (University of Chicago Industrial Relations Center, 1957; Gordon Training International reprint excerpt) for the core method and attitudes. The training sequence comes from the Gordon Model (P.E.T. and L.E.T.: basic listening, the 12 roadblocks, active listening, problem ownership and shifting gears). Ivey's microcounselling paradigm (Ivey et al., 1968; Ivey, 1971;…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Information turning into advising (a roadblock).
• Parroting, adding your own meaning, or paraphrasing every sentence.
• Practice that slides into arguments. Go back to lower-stakes topics.
• Trainees practising several skills at once. Teach one skill per unit.
• Picking a word that steers them toward your own interest rather than theirs.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.