Active Listening

Today I went out to lunch with an old friend that I hadn't seen in a very long time. She has been going through some rough times recently and she really needed a friend she could trust to vent to. When we went out to lunch I could feel that she had a lot of tension and really just needed to let everything out. As she started to open up and let everything out I thought back to our active listening lesson and I thought that this would be a great time to put this to practice. And it really did work. She said she felt really relieved that I was actually listening and I understood everything she was saying. Even though it felt awkward at first to be repeating what she was saying, to her it helped to know that I was truly engaged in her conversation and it made her feel comfortable to open up even more.