Reflective listening is a communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speaker's idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly. It attempts to "reconstruct what the client is thinking and feeling and to relay this understanding back to the client". Reflective listening is a more specific strategy than the more general methods of active listening. It arose from Carl Rogers' school of client-centered therapy in counseling theory. Empathy is at the center of Rogers' approach.
Dalmar Fisher, an associate professor at Boston College, developed a model for Reflective Listening that includes the following elements:
Additional application
Reflective listening has been found to be effective in a therapeutic setting. Subjects receiving reflective listening from a counselor have reported better therapeutic relationship and more disclosure of feelings.
Cognitive content is one of the two main options that a counselor has for reflecting the client's previous communication in the counseling session. This form deals with people, places, problems, situations, and things. Cognitive content can play a role in help with problem solving. Incorporating cognitive content in problem solving makes it easier for clients to identify and work through issues. If neither the counselor nor the client can identify a problem that the client has, there is no need to problem solve and there is no need for counseling. Similar to problem solving where one initially identifies the quandary, counseling calls for identification of the fundamental issue in order to successfully change the client’s behaviors or thought patterns.