Listening is a vital component of effective communication. Not being listened to, can have a negative impact on the quality of the therapy that the client receives. Effective communication does not just involve speech, its also the eyes, the ears and body language. Listening cannot be a passive activity; it takes effort and genuine engagement. Words need to be heard, considered and digested. When we are listening, we should always look at our clients, not spending too much time making notes, this gives us the opportunity to see what they are saying and how they are saying it, they may be saying one thing, but their body language could be saying something else. We should always be attentive and interested and we should never interrupt and always allow the client to come up with their own solutions.
When we ask questions, we should accept what the client says and then maybe use their answer as a question to check understanding. It is all to easy to ask a question badly and of course get an answer that wasn’t aimed for, by checking that the client understands the question, we should get the required response.
Facial expressions are so important, we can tell if someone is just saying what they think they should say by looking at their face, or maybe saying something that they don’t truly believe. It’s very hard to hide emotion, unless our client plays poker for a living.
One of the ways we communicate is through repetition, we have a set format and we revise the workings of the mind metaphor, we discuss scaling and the miracle question at every session, this is affective in allowing the client to absorb what we wish that they understand.
We must always adopt an open posture when receiving answers to questions, it shows we accept what the client is saying, we may choose to fold our arms when we may not agree, but this should be done selectively and without any confrontation, just a little subconscious message being sent to the client, without mentioning it.
Effective communication is the key to the Solution Focused Hypnotherapy process and we must use all that we have to ensure we demonstrate it.
