Empathetic Listening – How to Listen So Your Kids Will Too

Empathetic Listening - How to Listen to Kids So They'll Listen to You

Being able to respond and interact with the world whole-heartedly is fuel for flight and healthy living. A big part of this involves being aware of how we feel and how others feel, and managing those feelings to preserve relationships and satisfy needs. None of us were born knowing how to do this. It’s why the apprenticeship towards adulthood starts at the small human stage and lasts decades. So much to learn!>Empathetic listening is a powerful way to build this emotional awareness in children, open them up to your guidance and grow their emotional intelligence.

Opportunities for empathetic listening will present themselves all the time, but they won’t always present themselves gently. And certainly not always adorably. Being human is never that simple.

The opportunities will often be hidden in big feelings, tantrums, resistance, tears, tempers, frustration, anxiety, sadness, jealousy, confusion. As draining and as maddening as these situations can be, they are rich with the lessons that all kids need to learn to be healthy, capable, thriving adults. As with so much of life, the best way to learn is often in the midst of the mess. 

When your child is broken-hearted, furious, or confused, empathetic listening can help you to break through. The key lies in trying to understand what your child is experiencing. Their experiences might not always make logical sense, but they don’t need to (cue the distress at discovering there’s no Dory in Dory yoghurt). There is something more important than understanding the situation, and that’s understanding how they feel about it. This is where empathetic listening is gold. 

What is empathetic listening?

Empathetic listening involves tuning in to what your child is feeling. When you listen empathetically, the connection between you and your child will deepen, as will their budding self-awareness. 

This doesn’t mean that you’ll approve of how they’ve expressed themselves. The idea is that when they feel closer to you and more understood, your capacity to guide them and to be heard by them is expanded. The benefit is so mutual. When they feel your love, warmth and understanding, the big feelings that are breathing to life inside them will start to ease. When this happens, they’ll be open to your wisdom and your guidance, and to learning the lessons that all kids need to learn.

Okay then. Tell me how it’s done.

Here are the basic principles for empathetic listening. The aim is to understand what your child is feeling. Once your child feels heard, there is a clear way forward for dialogue and any lessons that need to be learned.

  1. Open up to all of the information that’s coming to you.

    Empathetic listening involves collecting whatever information you need to tune into your child’s experience. Use your eyes to notice their body language, gestures or facial expressions, your ears to hear their words; your imagination try to see things from where they are; and your heart – you already have a deep connection with your child and you know them child better than anyone – use your heart to get a sense of what they might be feeling. 

  2. Gently reflect back.

    Once you have the information, share it with your child, in a gentle, non-judgemental way. What your child needs more than anything is to feel heard. There is a sweet relief that will come when they realise that you ‘get’ them. 

  3. Respond to the feelings behind the words.

    Respond to the feelings behind the behaviour. When emotional things happen, it won’t help to be logical or to try to explain the unreasonableness of what they are feeling. For example, a baby brother has ‘stolen’ a very important hat – the one with Elsa on it. Now he’s putting it in his mouth, ‘like with spit and everything’. Rather than responding to the situation, ‘he won’t hurt your hat’, try responding to the feelings. ‘You’re worried he’s going to ruin your hat. I understand that. I know you’re a great sharer. What can you share with him that he can put in his mouth?’ Their actions might be messy and their words might be unhelpful, but their feelings behind them will be valid. 

  4. Name big feelings. So good for so many reasons.

    Naming an emotion can soothe the nervous system and help kids to find their way back from big feelings. For healthy functioning, the emotionally vibrant right brain and the logical, linguistic left brain need to stay connected and working together. The left brain is dominant in logic and language. It gives logical structure and meaning to the emotional experiences of the right brain. When there is an emotional tidal wave, the right side of the brain ‘disconnects’ from the left. This is when things feel out of control because for a little while, that’s exactly what happens – the big emotions that live in the right brain are out of the control of the calming, logical influence of the left brain.

    When you name what you think they might be experiencing, you are effectively ‘loaning’ your left brain by providing the words that will give structure and meaning to their feelings. ‘You really want to keep playing don’t you. You’re not ready to pack up yet. That sounds frustrating for you. I’d be frustrated too if I had to stop doing something I wanted to keep doing.’

    Think of it like turning on a light for them. When you name the feeling, it stops coming at them from the dark. They can start to get a sense of it, contain it, and start to deal with it. Naming a feeling also helps them to realise that they aren’t alone and that there are feelings that everyone experiences from time to time. 

    By naming the feeling that they might be feeling (give them space to tell you that they’re not), you’re helping to expand their emotional vocabulary. They might be ‘angry’ – or they might be frustrated, exhausted, jealous, furious. The more awareness they have of their own emotional experience, the more capacity they’ll have to identify those feelings in others. This is the heartbeat of emotional intelligence and when this flourishes, so will they. 

  5. Sometimes there will be mixed emotions – let them know that’s okay.

    Different emotions can land in the same place at the same time. For example, a child might be going on a fabulous holiday, but without one of their parents. They will likely feel super-excited, but a little sad as well, and perhaps a bit anxious or guilty about leaving the other parent behind. If you can name what you see, feel or think, and reassure them that it’s completely okay to feel different feelings at the same time – you’ll be giving them the strong, steady, loving presence they need. When they have the ‘permission’ to feel confusing feelings, they can stop fighting them. The feelings will be free to come, and then they will go.

  6. They’re doing their detective work too. Be careful with the vibes you’re sending out.

    Kids are clever. They pick up everything! While you’re trying to read them, they will also be reading you. Be careful with the information you send their way – your voice, your posture, the words you use, the distance between you. If you can (and you might not always have it in you – parents are human too), try to slow things down, position yourself so your eyes are level with theirs, and be with them in the moment. 

  7. You don’t need to fix anything.

    Feelings don’t always appear to make sense but they always have a good reason for being there. You don’t need to argue the facts or point out the reasons they ‘shouldn’t’ be feeling the way they do. You don’t need to fix anything. When they feel heard and understood, their connection with you will deepen, their big emotions will start to soothe, your influence will widen and the ‘fixing’ will take care of itself. 

And finally …

However curly their responses or behaviour might be, children never do what they do to be ‘bad’. Big feelings are overwhelming, and it takes time to learn how to manage them. Even as adults, there will likely be days where the big feelings win. 

When you listen empathetically, your child will feel heard and understood. They will feel your support and when they relax into this, they’re ready to listen to you and open up to your guidance. The best way to be heard is to listen. Their feelings don’t have to make sense to you, but it will always be something wonderful for them, if you can help their feelings make sense to them.

24 Comments

Kathryn

Gosh I need this right now! Struggling with my daughter and getting her to focus and listen so this will really help. Thank you for writing this!

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Kate

I love this idea, but I find it so hard when I am being verbally attacked by my 12 year old! As soon as I start to draw a boundary she lights into me and it is hard not to react!

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Karen - Hey Sigmund

Kate I hear you! Your daughter is heading into adolescence. This means that her brain is going through massive changes. One of the things that happens because of those changes is that adolescents are really quick to misinterpret your emotions. They use a different part of their brain to adults to read emotion. The part of their brain that is instinctive, impulsive, reactive and emotional has a heavy hand in reading emotion. At the beginning of adolescence, and for a few more years, this will be without the calming, rational influence of the prefrontal cortex – the part of their brain at the front that is able to calm down the instinctive response. Here is an article that will explain things a bit more for you https://www.heysigmund.com/understanding-and-avoiding-teenage-flare-ups/. Hold tight – she will get through it, but it might be bumpy for a few more years. It’s all part of the adolescent adventure – they grow and so do we. The good news is that she sounds like she’s travelling along exactly as she should be.

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Delia Rusu

I love how you say “you don’t need to fix anything”. As parents, we’re trying too hard to offer solutions and make things better quickly for them.

However many times all they need is someone to listen to what they have to share, that’s all 🙂

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Hey Sigmund

Thanks Delia. We tend to put so much pressure on ourselves sometimes to make things better, but so many times they’ll tend to find their own way through when the ground is steady beneath them – which is something we can help with.

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Jolanta

Dear Hey,
beautiful article; When my son was eight, he was really naughty, unfocused and very rebellious. One day, I realised that I needed to fully focus on him and in order to change him, I wrote myself a letter on how I was going to do just that. I needed to change myself. I started to listen, respond to my son in a loving and a patient way. I gave him my complete positive attention and the maximum of my time. I became tuned to his emotions. I was surprised how quickly he responded to me. I changed things around for my son in few short weeks. He became happy, focused and well behaved. My son is 20 now and the most loving, kind and focused young man I know. I am really glad I had the insight all those years ago to focus on myself in order to give him my best.

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Hey Sigmund

Thank you Jolanta for sharing this! It sounds as though you have given your son exactly what he needed to grow into a remarkable young man.

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grandma

Wonderful information! Wish I had read it when raising my own children. However, I’ll send it on to them now that they’re raising their own children.
Thanks so much!

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Mary

I love this! My son, who is now 16, was a late talker. When he was 2 years old, someone told me to just stop and listen to him whenever he started talking. So I did that, less talking & more listening. Today, he is my kid who “gets” everybody”. He has amazing empathy skills, and is able to articulate them in situations with family and friends.

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Virginia

My garandayghters are wonderful kids but the are lazy! So I won’t correct them. But…. I want them to become good and happy adults. Their rooms are scary messy and they drag their feet doing chores to the point I want to spank them! The youngest is a drama queen and seems to attract drama. So I give advice when asked. So I pray they will find their way. But it’s hard fir a grandmother.

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Hey Sigmund

Messy rooms and slow to do chores – it sounds as though your grand-daughters are very normal. It can be so frustrating though can’t it. Keep giving them gentle guidance – they’ll find their way. Sounds like you’re doing a wonderful job.

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Megan

Lat week I wrote something similar on my blog, you just happened to do it better! 🙂

I adore this website as a resource in my own parenting and in my counseling work with parents. Thank you for the quality work you produce!

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Tiffany

Thank you, this is fabulous information that will help us become the parents we wish to be. It’s funny, I do this intuitively and it just feel so good when it does and yet it’s hard to do it consistently. Now that you’ve empathetically mirrored for me what happens in those times of unconditional listening, I can visualize how to do it consistently. Thanks, my left brain wants to send you a thank you card and my right brain wants to hug you!! You’re doing a valuable thing here, please keep up the great work.

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Hey Sigmund

Thanks Tiffany! Loving your virtual hug and sending you one right back. It’s so great that you do empathetic listening intuitively. I know exactly what you mean though – it can be hard to remember to do it all the time can’t it! Sounds like your kiddos are in wonderful hands.

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Rob

So much great information. Am a Grandparent and am being able to see the good and the not so good aspects of my parenting as I watch my children raise their children. When up to your neck in alligators it is hard to remember the goal was to drain the swamp.

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Skeeter

This is a very helpful and insightful article. My son is keen on his emotions and we have helped him name them since he was around 3yrs. Today, he is able to articulate his feelings most of the time.

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Thanks so much @maggiedentauthor♥️…
“Karen Young - Hey Sigmund has such a wonderful way with words especially around anxiety. This is her latest beautiful picture book that explains anxiety through the lens of the Polyvagal theory using the metaphor of a house. This shows how sometimes anxiety can be hard to notice. I think this book can help kids and teens better understand stress and anxiety. I loved it! This would be great for homes, schools and in libraries.
Congratulations Karen.💛”
Of course we love them, no matter what - but they need to feel us loving them, no matter what. Especially when they are acting in unlovable ways, or saying unlovable things. Especially then.

This is not ‘rewarding bad behaviour’. To think this assumes that they want to behave badly. They don’t. What they want is to feel calm and safe again, but in that moment they don’t have the skills to do that themselves, so they need us to help them. 

It’s leading with love. It’s showing up, even when it’s hard. The more connected they feel to us, the more capacity we will have to lead them - back to calm, into better choices, towards claiming their space in the world kindly, respectfully, and with strength. 

This is not about dropping the boundary, but about holding it lovingly, ‘I can see you’re doing it tough right now. I’m right here. No, I won’t let you [name the boundary]. I’m right here. You’re not in trouble. We’ll get through this together.’

If you’re not sure what they need, ask them (when they are calm), ‘When you get upset/ angry/ anxious, what could I do that would help you feel loved and cared for in that moment? And this doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ to a ‘no’ situation. What can I do to make the no easier to handle? What do I do that makes it harder?’♥️
Believe them AND believe in them. 

‘Yes this is hard. I know how much you don’t want to do this. It feels big doesn’t it. And I know you can do big things, even when it feels like you can’t. How can I help?’

They won’t believe in themselves until we show them what they are capable of. For this, we’ll have to believe in their ‘can’ more than they believe in their ‘can’t’.♥️
Sometimes it feels as though how we feel directs what we do, but it also works the other way: What we do will direct how we feel. 

When we avoid, we feel more anxious, and a bigger need to avoid. But when we do brave - and it only needs to be a teeny brave step - we feel brave. The braver we do, the braver we feel, and the braver we do… This is how we build brave - with tiny, tiny uncertain steps. 

So, tell me how you feel. All feelings are okay to be there. Now tell me what you like to do if your brave felt a little bigger. What tiny step can we take towards that. Because that brave is always in you. Always. And when you take the first step, your brave will rise bigger to meet you.♥️
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#anxietyinkids #consciousparenting #parentingtips #gentleparent #parentinglife #mindfulparenting #childanxiety #heywarrior
If anxiety has had extra big teeth lately, I know how brutal this feels. I really do. Think of it as the invitation to strengthen your young ones against anxiety. It’s not the disappearance of brave, or the retreat of brave. It’s the invitation to build their brave.

This is because the strengthening against anxiety happens only with experience. When the experience is in front of you, it can feel like bloodshed. I know that. I really do. But this is when we fight for them and with them - to show them they can do this.

The need to support their avoidance can feel relentless. But as long as they are safe, we don’t need to hold them back. We’ll want to, and they’ll want us to, but we don’t need to. 

Handling the distress of anxiety IS the work. Anxiety isn’t the disruption to building brave, it’s the invitation to build brave. As their important adult who knows they are capable, strong, and brave, you are the one to help them do that.

The amygdala only learns from experience - for better or worse. So the more they avoid, the more the amygdala learns that the thing they are avoiding is ‘unsafe’, and it will continue to drive a big fight (anger, distress) or flight (avoidance) response. 

On the other hand, when they stay with the discomfort of anxiety - and they only need to stay with it for a little longer each time (tiny steps count as big steps with anxiety) - the amygdala learns that it’s okay to move forward. It’s safe enough.

This learning won’t happen quickly or easily though. In fact, it will probably get worse before it gets better. This is part of the process of strengthening them against anxiety, not a disruption to it. 

As long as they are safe, their anxiety and the discomfort of that anxiety won’t hurt them. 
What’s important making sure they don’t feel alone in their distress. We can do this with validation, which shows our emotional availability. 

They also need to feel us holding the boundary, by not supporting their avoidance. This sends the message that we trust their capacity to handle this.

‘I know this feels big, and I know you can do this. What would feel brave right now?’♥️

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