2. Attending Behaviors for Therapeutic Listening: A Topic Robert L. Kehoe Ashford University Dr. Roberts September 24,2011

3. Learning and Demonstrating Attending Behaviors for Therapeutic Listening There will come a day when you are confronted by a troubled person wanting to communicate those troubles to you. This may occur in your career or in your personal life. “The need for an effective therapeutic listener exists in nearly everyone” ( Wolvin & Coakley, 1996, p. 262). Therapeutic listening requires mastering five different skills. One of those skills is being capable of demonstrating attending behaviors during a listening event. There are nine different behaviors that signal to the sender you are listening. The activities in this topic will acquaint you with all nine of those behaviors by absorbing the information, doing the behaviors, and connecting the behaviors in your personal life and career.

4. What are the Nine Attending Behaviors?

5. Eye Contact How: Mutual gaze Individual gaze

6. Head Nod Positive yes type Encourages sender to continue

7. Bodily Position Orientation Forward lean Close

8. Facial Expression Connection Smiling Wrinkled brow

9. Silence Calculated pauses Reflection

10. Verbal Attending Behaviors Verbal Expression Voice Tone Touch Consider the Comfort of Sender

11. Attending Behaviors Non-verbal Eye contact Head Nod Facial expression Bodily position Silence Verbal Verbal expression Voice Tone Touch Consider the comfort of the sender

12. Do It We have identified nine attending behaviors of therapeutic listening. When listening to senders we should be aware if we are keeping good eye contact, using facial expressions and bodily positions to encourage the sender to express their feelings completely. Are we allowing for silence to break up the communication and give time for the sender to reflect? As listeners we need to maintain verbal expression and voice tone to signal to the sender we care about what they are saying. Finally, is it an appropriate time to offer comfort in the form of touching, time to gather repose, or something to drink? For more information on attending behaviors and their use please follow these assignment instructions. 1. Read in the textbook Listening (5 th ed.) by Andrew Wolvin and Carolynn Coakley Chapter 6, Therapeutic Listening Demonstrating Attending Behaviors pages 270- 272 and Chapter 4 n Listening as a Communication Function, pages 122-124. 2. Follow this link http://www.ok.ngb.army.mil/j1/sarc/sarc_documents/Training/NGB_UVA_SARC_Training/Handouts/Activ e_Listening_Workbook-Learning_To_Listen.pdf and download the Active Listening Workbook. Use this information to explore other ways attending behaviors affect listening. http://www.ok.ngb.army.mil/j1/sarc/sarc_documents/Training/NGB_UVA_SARC_Training/Handouts/Activ e_Listening_Workbook-Learning_To_Listen.pdf 3. What is new? Wolvin and Coakley (1996) have given us a solid foundation for attending behaviors in therapeutic listing.However we need to know what others are saying today about attending behaviors. Do a Google search using the keywords “attending behaviors. You will find over 9 million listings. What other attending behaviors did you find that were different from Wolvin and Coakley list? How do these examples help the listener and sender communication? Post a response on the discussion board at the Blackboard site for this class. Give a link or links to the site or sites where you found the information. 4. Find examples of people demonstrating effective listener attending behaviors in YouTube videos, movies, or television shows. In a 2-3 page essay describe the attending behaviors and the situation the attending behavior occurred. Do this for at least four of the nine attending behaviors described by Wolvin and Coakley (1996). Cite reference to your material following APA guidelines.

13. Connect Involve yourself in at least two therapeutic listening experiences by chance or by your own design (visit a sick person, or someone you know is having difficulty). Monitor your listening experiences during the next week. In those experiences that qualify as therapeutic listening answer the following questions in a 3-5 page essay: What attending behaviors did you engage in? Which attending behavior was the most difficult? Why? How helpful were you to the sender? How can you improve your attending behaviors?

14. References Horton, W. (2006). E-learning by Design [DX Reader version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/97807 http://online.vitalsource.com/books/97807 Wolvin, A., & Coakley, C.G. (1996). Therapeutic Listening. In A. Wolvin, & C.G. Coakley (Eds.), Listening (5 th ed., pp. 263-307). Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.