Name: Muhammad Azfar Bin Ismail

ID: 21509

Active listening and body language are important for peer counsellors to master.
According to (Knight,1985), active listening is giving ones full commitment towards another
person and both listening and appreciating without judgement towards the speaker. According to
(McWhinney,1989), active listening is difficult to apply in our daily lives because it requires full
attention and concentration towards both verbally and non-verbally of what the speaker is
conveying. We reflect the message of the speaker towards our speaker and understanding the
speakers life.

According to (Leijssen,2006), encouraging body language can be defined as nonverbal

interaction such as body language impacts towards our daily communication. In communication,
both of our auditory and our body are constantly communicating with the other person.
According to (Rennie,1998), he defined encouraging body as how our body interaction or
movements can affect a persons emotion when we communicate with each other. According to
(Foley and Gentile,2010), encouraging body language can offer the speaker of valuable hidden
information of what the listeners is unable or unwilling to speak into words.

There is many importance of active listening for peer counselor. First and foremost,
active listening can draw high level skills for the listener to listen, explore, reflect, relating and
understanding the speaker (Knight,1985). According to (Rogers and Farson,1957), through active
listening, development of personality for both group and personal can be achieved. Rogers and
Farson also state that both personal values and philosophy can be changed. Furthermore, active
listening can transform a person to be less authoritarian, more democratic, emotionally mature
and more open to experiences and others point of view.

The benefits of practicing encouraging body language for peer counselors can be listed.
Firstly, it has stress- reducing effect, it increases self-awareness of our own body interaction and
delay automatic behavior that can affect the listener (Leijssen,2006). Secondly, according to
(Foley and Gentile,2010), the listener can identify the speakers hidden emotion through facial
expression of the speaker and therefore the listener can perceive the listeners true message in his
or her speech. Finally, encouraging body language can build the formation of rapport between
speaker and the listener that serves as the foundation for both parties to work together toward
mutual goals.

References
Foley, G. N., & Gentile, J. P. ( 2010). Nonverbal Communication In Psychotherapy. Psychiatry
(Edgemont) 7(6), 3844.
Knight, S. (1985). Reflection and learning: the importance of a listener. In K. R. Boud D,
Reflection: turning experience into learning. New York: Nichols Publishing Company.
Leijssen, M. (2006). Validation Of The Body In Psychotherapy. Journal of Humanistic
Psychology 46(2), 126-146.
McWhinney, I. (1989). A textbook of family medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rennie, D. L. (1998). Person-Centred Counselling: An Experiential Approach (Mechanics).
London: Sage Publications UK.
Rogers, C., & Farson, R. E. (1957). Active Listening. In R. Newman, M. Danziger, & M. Cohen,
Communication in Business Today (p. 25). Washington C.C: Heath and Company.