About this course

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between active listening in clinical (therapy) settings and non-clinical, coaching-style conversations.
• Identify at least three core components of effective active listening, including presence, reflection, and clarification.
• Demonstrate the use of active listening skills to accurately reflect client content, emotion, and meaning.
• Distinguish between listening for assessment (clinical) and listening for awareness and forward movement (coaching-style work).
• Apply active listening techniques that maintain clear ethical boundaries between therapy and non-clinical services.
• Recognize verbal and non-verbal cues that indicate when a client may require clinical intervention rather than continued coaching-style support.
• Utilize open-ended questions and reflective statements to support client insight, goal clarification, and forward-focused action.
• Avoid common listening errors, including premature advice-giving, over-directing, and role confusion.
• Explain how active listening supports client autonomy, accountability, and engagement in both clinical and non-clinical contexts.
• Integrate active listening skills into structured conversations that align with scope of practice and ethical decision-making.

Learning Levels

• All

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Dr. Liz Lasky, PhD, LCSW, ACC

  Dr. Liz Lasky, PhD, LCSW, is the founder of The Coach Training Program For Helping Professionals™ and lizlasky.com. She is passionate about teaching therapists how to coach ethically and well. Dr. Liz Lasky is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (NY State, MSW from Yeshiva University). She holds a PhD from Yeshiva University in Social Welfare. She is also a New York University Certified Coach and holds the International Coach Federation credential of Associate Certified Coach (ACC). She is an adjunct professor at Fordham University. She is a published author (both in peer reviewed academic journals and her own book), a professional expert for Bravo TV, and presents her research on coaching single women internationally, most notably at Harvard University. She is also a proud Fellow of The Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, Harvard University.

Disclosure

References

• American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
• National Association of Social Workers. (2021). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. NASW Press.
• Hill, C. (2021). Helping skills: Facilitating exploration, insight, and action: Instructor and student resource guide [Resources for Students, Web Forms].
• Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2012). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change. Guilford press.
• Norcross, J. C., & Wampold, B. E. (2021). Evidence-based therapy relationships: Research conclusions and clinical practices. Psychotherapy, 58(3), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022161
• Abuse, S. (2019). Mental Health Services Administration.(2020). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2020). The SHARE approach: A model for shared decision-making. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Murphy, D. (2018). Therapist empathy and client outcome: An updated meta-analysis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000175
• Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 316. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000172
• Doss, B. D., Roddy, M. K., Wiebe, S. A., & Johnson, S. M. (2022). A review of the research during 2010–2019 on evidence‐based treatments for couple relationship distress. Journal of marital and family therapy, 48(1), 283-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12552
• Aponte, H. J. (2022). The soul of therapy: The therapist’s use of self in the therapeutic relationship. Contemporary Family Therapy, 44(2), 136-143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-021-09614-5