Paraphrasing helps to achieve accurate understanding of content. The speaker either agrees with your summary or disagrees and can then phrase the message. For example; such as ' You're saying that…' or 'I see, you would say that…' help you to paraphrase the message. If you phrase, avoid repeating the other person's statements word for word.
Paraphrasing is useful at work to confirm instructions or information before you take action. Whether at work, or in other situations, paraphrasing is a very effective way of indicating to the speaker that you are concentrating on the message.
But reflective statements are when you reflect feelings by expressing, in brief statements, the essential feelings you receive from the message. This helps the speaker to focus on them. For example, to reflect feelings from the message, 'I thought I would have got that last promotion. Seems like I miss out every time', the listener replies, 'It's really discouraging' or 'You feel discouraged' or 'You seem to be feeling discouraged'. This lets the speaker know that you understand their feelings.