Listen Up!

In all of the fervor of life there is a lot to blog about and I take on many different topics. I am a citizen as well as a minister and a therapist. However, all of these roles come together for me because at the core are relationships.

One of the most popular books I have ever written or co-written is called Listen for Heaven's Sake. It has sold several hundred thousand copies and translated into many languages. The concept of listening is easy but actually doing it is not so easy. In fact, listening with heart, mind and soul to another person's heart, mind and soul is one of the greatest challenges of life.

I sometimes need to remind myself that I am also a retired Clinical Counselor. Because I have emphasized the importance of caring relationships by ordinary people it may appear that I have forgotten my professional training. But I have not forgotten that training and, in fact, it was my doctoral research that moved me from an emphasis on being an "expert" with all the answers to one who must try to deeply understand my clients.

The latest research on counseling effectiveness shows how important listening is to psychotherapy. An article on Talking Cure says:
Listening to clients...no, really listening! Studies show a 65% improvement in outcome
Evidence-based practice is, as you know, "all the rage." Like bell-bottoms and skinny ties, listening to clients in therapy is out of fashion. Treatment manuals and fidelity measures are "in." Most of the push for field-wide adoption of specific treatments for specific disorders comes from the top. Government funders, policy think tanks and professional organizations are promoting evidence-based practice as the cure-all for what ails the field--namely, a continuing lack of respect and lingering perception of mental health as the "soft" of science.

A number of researchers have, over the last decade, been using the client's rating of the therapeutic alliance and progress in treatment as a way of improving retention and outcome in treatment. Interestingly, such research shows that providing therapists with real-time feedback regarding the client's experience of the therapeutic alliance and outcome cuts attrition rates in half and improves outcome by as much as 65%.

Bottom line: therapists were encouraged to listen--especially when what they were doing wasn't working or did not fit for the individual client--and the hoped for improvements in retention and outcome followed.

So, caring, listening and respect are still the key to effective psychotherapy. In fact, the client, not the therapist, is the hero. We who are counseling the heroes need to remember that and listen to what they have to say.