Lesson 6: Encouraging / Paraphrasing / Summarizing


Attention

In preparation for this Lesson, read Chapter 6 in your textbook


Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Identify key words in a client statement
  • Demonstrate the ability to paraphrase a client's statements
  • Demonstrate the ability to summarize a client's statements

Teaching

Reading

Chapter 6: Encouraging, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Listening

Listening is NOT a passive exercise!

How do we communicate that we are listening to someone?

  • Verbal tracking
  • Questions
  • Encouraging
  • Paraphrasing
  • Summarizing

Encouragement

  • Repetition of key words
  • Direct statements
  • Simply reflecting what they are saying to you

Paraphrasing

  • Restating the main point of a statement
  • Shortening a longer statement into a brief one
  • Using sentence stems such as "It seems to me that...", "What I hear you saying is..."

Summarizing

  • Bringing things together into a cohesive sentence or paragraph

Assessment

Lesson 6 Quiz

One of the important ways we communicate to our clients that we are listening is through the use of encouragement, paraphrasing, and summarizing. All the while we are continually tracking what they are saying and providing feedback that we are "there" with them.

  1. Engage in a conversation with someone in your home this week and then describe that conversation in detail.
  2. Write a 2 sentence "summary" of the conversation that you feel communicates the essence of the conversation.