ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to identifying selected precepts of listening. It intends to identify some of the more common problems in listening and formulating, and to propose a number of basic guidelines for their resolution. The chapter considers a basic compendium of some of the most important precepts and pitfalls in listening and intervening. Much therapeutic listening involves the attempt to decode the derivative complex—the narrative, encoded material—in light of the implications of an activated intervention context. Slowly mastering communicative precepts and techniques is deeply rewarding, not only for the therapist, but also, most critically, for the patients he or she strives to help. There are two major categories of patient indicators: symptoms and efforts by the patient to alter one or more ground rules of psychotherapy. All indicators are responses to adaptive contexts and have an interactional foundation.
