Reflective listening is a
communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speaker's idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly. It attempts to "reconstruct what the client is thinking and feeling and to relay this understanding back to the client". Reflective listening is a more specific strategy than the more general methods of
active listening. It arose from
Carl Rogers' school of
client-centered therapy in
counseling theory. Empathy is at the center of Rogers' approach.