Mental Health Care Active Listening

It is fundamental for mental health professionals to demonstrate foundational skills of counselling using an integrative process which is inclusive of a holistic, person-centred recovery orientated framework (Commonwealth of Australia 2013; Geldard & Geldard 2016; Muir-Cochrane et al. 2014). This can be achieved by adopting an integrated counselling approach as described by Geldard and Geldard (2016) as well as considering aspects like the physical environment and appropriate communication skills to ensure the consumer feels encouraged to explore concepts of self-discovery and learning. To facilitate this, a collaborative, person-centred recovery based framework must be implemented for a comprehensive and holistic provision of therapeutic care
43). At 0:50, by asking Alfie ‘what brings you here today?’ I felt I was able to demonstrate that well. In future, to extend that skill and to become more encouraging, it would have been helpful to reassure Alfie by giving him more time to respond and ensure he did not feel pressured to respond immediately (Geldard & Geldard 2016, p. 43).
Further, to develop these ongoing skills of joining and listening, it is fundamental for health care professionals to listen with interest which involves the use of minimal responses, brief invitations to continue, non-verbal behaviour (matching, appropriate physical closeness, use of movement, facial expression and eye contact), clarity, volume, matching tone and speed of voice as well as use of silence (Geldard & Geldard 2016, p. 44-9). Throughout the session, I felt that I was able to exhibit these skills of active listening adequately as I remained calm, relaxed, friendly, matched Alfie’s non-verbal behaviour and posture, maintained appropriate eye contact as well as showed expressions of interest and concern through appropriate nodding and minimal responses like ‘mm’ (Elder, Evans & Nizette 2013, p. 454). However, in saying that, I could have executed this better by refraining from using ‘um,’ as this
76). In addition to that, another statement which could have been restated was at 10:37 when I asked, “do you feel like a nuisance in some way?” in the context of not wanting to bother his friends and asking for help (10:27). Alternatively, I could have reframed that by stating “it seems that you think that you’d be bothering your friends, what makes you think that?” as this would assist him self-discover his own thoughts without my intrusion. Essentially, to ensure effective communication as a number of studies (Dziopa & Ahern 2009, p. 18; Kitchener, Jorm & Kelly 2016, p. 31; Geldard & Geldard 2016, p. 156) have identified, the use of closed and open-ended questions when appropriate, clarification of what has been said, paraphrasing and summarising facts and feelings and use of minimal prompts, are all fundamental skills required to maintain a natural conversational flow to facilitate the client’s process of self-disclosure and