Listening

I recently did a course on Guidance and Counselling at university. One of the key things we learned about was listening, naturally, because counsellors do a lot of that. We learned that some of the most effective ways to show you're listening and you've heard what the other person has to say are to summarise and repeat back what someone has just said to you, and to ask questions in order to show that you want to hear more. Through these techniques, people feel listened to, and they often end up solving their own conundrums, which is usually the goal of counselling. Anyway, I've been thinking about all this recently, but with regard to written or typed communication, and I think it's just as important there. How frustrating is it when you ask someone a question in, say, an email, and they don't reply so you have to send another one asking the same question?! Or you tell someone about something really important to you and they don't respond to it in their reply?! I have always tried hard to be thorough when replying to peoples' emails, letters or even text messages, because I figure it must've been reasonably significant for them to take the time to write or type it, so it warrants a response. I don't know if I succeed in my efforts. But I do know how valued or appreciated I feel when someone looks at me when they're talking and shows me that they're listening by consciously or subconsciously using those techniques mentioned above. And I feel the same way about written or typed communication. Except for the looking at me part. Naturally.