The Importance of Empathic Listening in Interpersonal Communication

We typically seek first to be understood. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. They're either speaking or preparing to speak. Empathic listening involves a very deep shift in paradime. It's an entirely different paradise. Listening gets inside another person's frame of reference. You see the world the way they see the world. You understand how they feel. People often feed on sympathy. It makes them dependent. The essence of empathic listening is more than registering, intellectually and emotionally as well as understanding what has been said. Only ten per cent of our communication is represented by we say 'I don't get it' Instead you work with your own feelings because it gives you