Rapport/Reflective Listening

George S. Everly, Jr, PhD, ABPP

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The Johns Hopkins RAPID PFA Model: Five Core Elements

1. Rapport and reflective listening (RL)

2. Assessment

3. Prioritization

4. Intervention

5. Disposition and follow-up

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RAPID Begins with Establishing Rapport and Employing Reflective Listening

The goals are to:

Make contact
Provide an introduction
Establish rapport
Use specific active reflective listening techniques such as paraphrasing to establish
some degree of empathy (perceived understanding)

RL is an ongoing process used throughout the entire interaction with a person who is in
crisis or in the wake of some adversity

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Importance of Reflective Listening

Specialized techniques can make listening more effective

One such technique is RL

Often referred to as active listening

It seems to derive much of its effectiveness from demonstrating that the person in
distress is understood
Understanding often conveys trust
Trust often conveys compliance

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Importance of Reflective Listening

RL has been used successfully in applications as diverse as:

Counseling
Crisis intervention
Parent-child communications
Sales
Hostage negotiations

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Beginning the Conversation

Establishing rapport as quickly as What you say initially will obviously

possible is essential
In the wake of a disaster, you will
encounter people in acute distress
PFA is designed to provide acute
assistance
depend upon the situation, but
generally speaking:
1. Introduce yourself
2. Explain what you are doing
3. Ask an initial question

To know how best to help someone in

psychological crisis, you must observe
and listen

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Reflective Listening Tools: Questions

When you ask well phrased questions, a person in distress derives a sense of value and
participation in the solution of his or her problem
Skillfully asked questions can also convey a sense of support

The great twentieth century physician Henry Murray once said, There is nothing so
powerful as the well phrased question

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Types of Questions

Closed-ended questions
Yes
No
Good for quickly establishing facts

Open-ended questions
What?
Why?
How?
Good for filling in details and probing for further information

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Key to Reflective Listening = Summary Paraphrase

Taking someone elses words Sounds to me like ...

rephrasing the core content into your
words So, in other words

Sometimes a form of yes-no What youre saying is

What Im hearing you say is

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How it Works: Imagine Yourself to Be a Mirror

Once engaged, a person in distress sends either non-verbal or verbal messages

regarding his or her current state of distress

As a human mirror, your job then becomes reflecting back the persons emotional
state and/or the most salient content within his or her message

Simply said, the core of reflective listening consists of taking the other persons words,
paraphrasing the essence of his or her message into your words, then reflecting back

Since most messages have both an emotional aspect as well as an objective aspect, you
must decide which aspect to reflect and when
Its often a good idea to start with the emotion that seems most important as is often
the case in the wake of tragedy

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