A well-known version of this is called Active Listening (toolbox link). It has been incorporated into many methodologies, for instance Active Parenthood and Re-evaluation Counselling. It includes such recommendations as 

• Arrange seating so that you are close, eg with chairs at a 90° angle to each other
• Maintain eye contact when the speaker is willing
• Express support in words, eg ‘I understand’, or through gestures or touch

Interventions

In particular the listener is advised to consider two types of intervention:

• For questions of clarification (When you say that, do you mean A or B?)
• To mirror back to the speaker a brief summary of what you are hearing (What I hear you say in brief is that you… Would you say that is correct?)

Uses

Active Listening can improve communications in almost any relationship, with and between adults and children of all ages.

A word of caution: if ‘mirroring’ is allowed to dominate the exchange, the listener may pay so much attention to the formulation of the mirror message that they miss hearing what the speaker is actually saying. This intervention is to be reserved for use when it can offer a unique contribution to the exchange, for example when the speaker seems to be ‘going around in circles’.

The toolbox contains an entry for one version of this, called Deep Listening. It came from a futures methodology called Enspirited Envisioning and has since been incorporated into many other contexts, eg Learning for Change. General recommendations:

• Arrange so that you cannot see each other: chairs facing away from each other, or for instance a walk side by side - a phone call without video also works well
• Refrain from giving any feedback, not even hmm or other sounds; though occasional sounds are necessary in a phone call, to reassure the speaker that you are still there

About the no-feedback condition

We humans are superbly gifted socially, in that we can often ‘read’ what other people are thinking or feeling. And we tend to adjust our narrative accordingly: if you respond positively, I will give you more of the same. If negatively, I’ll change my focus. This ability comes at the cost of really open communication. Something different happens when the listener gives no clue to their reaction: the speaker stops trying to please, however unconsciously, and goes deeper into their own narrative.

Interventions

Questions for clarification are ‘permitted’. However, a common experience is that if the listener can comfortably park even those questions for a while, they may be rewarded by a spontaneous clarification from the speaker. 

Uses

Deep listening is not for everyone, all of the time. It’s for 

• Adults and youth who are aware that they have something important to talk about
• When appropriately introduced - not embarked upon without warning

It’s also for you, when you feel a need to consult your intuition by deep-listening to yourself.

Introduction

If the speaker is unfamiliar with deep listening and you are meeting in person, not by phone, you may want to explain that you practise a method for listening more deeply, which is easiest to do if you eliminate distractions - for instance, by closing your eyes.

In either case, with or without feedback, the initiative is with the speaker. The speaker is free to ask the listener to comment - and the listener is free to choose whether to do so or not.

If asked, and if you as a listener prefer not to respond directly, in either case you can use ‘mirroring’; or can simply say something like “Do please say more. I’m listening’”