How to practice the soft skill of Empathetic Listening - your guide to learning how to actually listen.
- Ava S
- Dec 10, 2025
- 2 min read
Ava S
University of Oxford - BA in modern history
Empathetic listening is a soft skill that is integral to the way in which you interact with others. Empathetic listening allows you to maintain good relationships with others and be a supportive friend. Empathetic listening is about actually listening to what another person has to say, and engaging in ways to support them and respond to what they are saying. Many people fall into a listening to respond mode of thinking - this means we often listen in order to wait for our turn to speak, but this is not conducive to productive or effective conversation.
This blog post will show you how you can practice forms of empathetic listening that are active. You will be able to form and deepen your relationships with your friends, family and colleagues as a result and even better solve conflict!
1) Wait for your turn to speak and consider their point of view. When someone is disclosing something to you, it is not your time to speak but instead you should listen and wait until it is appropriate for you to speak. It is not the time to interrogate them, question their point of view, or even worse so, become defensive towards them. Encouragement in this situation is far better than probing deeper or questioning that person’s point of view.
2) You should pay close attention to what others have to say, even if it is not a point of view you agree with or have ever encountered in this way before. This will help them to feel accepted even when their opinion differs from you. It is important people are allowed the space and time to feel accepted in spaces of speech in order to be able to share more freely and lovingly. You can nodd your head to acknowledge what they are saying, smile at them, alter your body languages or even mutter ‘I understand’ in between their speech.
3) Ask open questions. Open questions will allow the other person to engage in a conversation further whereas closed questions limit how much information the other person will share. By summarising what that person has said this will also show you have listened and understood entirely what they have said. This also allows for opportunitie for further clarification; for example, if you misheard something this gives the person an opportunity to expand further on what they said or correct you before moving on.
4) Watch their body language. This means that you should watch the persons speech and body language for signs they may not want the conversation to continue, that they may be uncomfortable in any respect or that they are enjoying or responding well to your prompts. You should adapt your questions in response to this!
I hope this blog post helps you to become a better listener, and that you have learnt much from its content. Good luck with your listening!
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