CHAPTER THREE
LISTENING SKILLS IN SOCIAL WORK
PRACTICE
The Practice of Generalist Social Work (2nd ed.)
Key Ideas


Good listening and communication skills are crucial
to effective social work practice.
There are specific listening approaches and skills
that social workers need to master to develop
trusting working relationships with clients.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Attending

Way in which social workers convey their interest in
communicating with clients, which promotes
exploration of ideas and problems
 Attending
has verbal and nonverbal components
 Requires
physical and psychological preparation on the
part of the social worker
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Discovery-Oriented Questions

Invite client to communicate goals for the
relationship
 Helps
social workers to put aside biases and preconceived notions about clients
 Helps
put clients at ease to allow clients to guide the
conversation
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Use of Silence

Allowing moments of silence in the course of a
conversation with a client can be very useful for
clients and social workers. Silence can mean the
client is …
 Thinking
 Confused
 Experiencing
uncomfortable thoughts or feelings
 Working on developing trust
 Normally quiet
 Achieving closure
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Following Responses

Immediate feedback that tells clients they’ve been
heard and understood
 Social
workers can use a variety of responses to
communicate to clients that their message is getting
through
 Verbal
examples include, “If I heard you correctly…”;
“Tell me more about…”; “Mm hmm”
 Nonverbal
examples include nodding the head or other
facial expressions that show understanding
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Paraphrasing

A restatement, in the social workers’ own words, of
the client’s relevant or main points— focuses on the
content of a client’s message
 Helps
clients know they’ve been heard accurately
 Helps clients to clarify their own thoughts
 Helps to focus on the content of a message
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Clarifying

Asks for client feedback on a particular aspect of
a message to clarify a point
 Like
paraphrasing, but focuses in on a particular point
in a message to check for meaning and accuracy in
understanding
 Helps
to ensure against making assumptions or
generalizations about a message
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Summarizing

A way of providing snapshots of topics discussed or
managing a conversation to provide focus
 Helps
to bring closure to a session or a particular topic
 Helps
to confirm understanding of a message
 Helps
to focus in on a particular topic or aspect of a
conversation
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Closed- and Open-Ended
Questions

Closed-ended questions encourage clients to
provide short, factual responses.
 Often
used to collect information, get focus on a topic,
or manage a conversation

Open-ended questions encourage clients to
expound on answers to provide some depth, detail,
and context.
 Often
used to get clients to explore or get more indepth on a topic
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Indirect Questions

Questions phrased as statements rather than
questions
 Allow
client to decide whether or not to respond
 Provide
an alternative to questioning in the course of a
conversation
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Use of Empathy

Assists clients in identifying and labeling feelings
and provides support for clients to explore feelings
 Basic
empathy
 Inferred
empathy
 Invitational
empathy
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Common Communication Pitfalls





Jargon
Leading questions
Excessive questioning
Multiple questions
Irrelevant questions
© 2011 Taylor & Francis
Diversity Considerations

Social workers need to consider elements of their
own and clients’ cultures and how these elements
impact the working relationship.
 Social
workers can use supervision, education, selfexploration, and exploration with the client to learn
more about diversity considerations and how they may
influence the relationship between social worker and
client.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis