Learning to Listen
Communication Trainings and Peace-making Services
At Sacred Groves we believe that….
direct, authentic and compassionate communication is essential for healthy relationships, families, communities and our global village. As a community we foster good communication by participating in ongoing trainings and practice sessions to cultivate skills in listening and speaking from the heart.
All relationships, families, communities have conflict. Conflict that is resolved is a positive learning opportunity for the individual and for the group. Conflict that is underground and unresolved is a toxin that poisons the fabric of the family and/or community. To choose to shift the paradigm from blame to personal accountability allows conflict to be an opportunity for personal transformation and empowerment.
The following services are our way of supporting others who want to learn from their conflicts and develop heartfelt listening and speaking skills. Our intention is to create a more peaceful world for our children and our children’s children.
Ways to Connect: Listening and Speaking with Heart
Training & Practice Group
Facilitated by Therese Charvet & Kendra E. Thornbury
Learn new skills and have an opportunity to practice them in a safe container. Each evening will include instruction and practice in compassionate listening, compassionate speaking, and/or tools for developing self awareness and personal accountability in relationship.
Open to men and women. Three-month sessions meet seven times, every other week, 7-9:30pm. Next class coming up in Autumn 2008.
Overview of Curriculum
- Compassionate Listening Skills such as Reflective listening, paraphrasing, listening for Facts Feelings Values, Open Sentences, Statements that connect
- Compassionate Speaking Skills such as Non-Violent Communication, Using ‘I-Language’
- Tools for developing self awareness and personal accountability: Defenses, judgments, triggers, Byron Katie’s “The Work”,Walking in Another’s Shoes
Couples Counseling using Compassionate Listening
Therese offers herself as a coach and facilitator for couples who are having difficulty listening to each other and speaking from the heart. Compassionate Listening skills are taught and practiced during these private sessions. Therese creates a safe container for each person to speak openly as well as listen compassionately. She helps each person understand when she/he is triggered and how to interrupt reactive responses that result in separation and distance. Through her coaching, couples have moved into deeper intimacy, more harmony and enhanced personal growth through the relationship.
Compassionate Listening
The Compassionate Listening Project (TCLP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering individuals to strive for peace through the cultivation and practice of powerful listening skills. Thérèse is a Certified Facilitator with The Compassionate Listening Project and has been integrating its tools and teachings into her community healing work for several years. She currently works as TCLP’s Administrative Director . She believes that Compassionate Listening can strengthen our sense of community, help resolve personal and domestic conflicts and reduce the fragmentation and isolation of our modern world.
Listening Council
is a unique model for conflict resolution and peace-making, applicable for couples, families, friends, work environments, and organizations. At its core, it is about creating a ‘container’ for deep, full-hearted listening for those in conflict or in challenging situations. Because our conflicts –whether inner or outer–affect others in our families and communities, the support and compassion of these others can be a healing force for the evolution and resolution of the situation. “Listening Council” was co-created with Brian Berman of Berman Healing Arts in 2001-2002 and has been used successfully in a variety of settings ever since.
What Listening Council looks like
When called by someone requesting a Council, first Therese listens deeply in order to understand the situation. Then she proposes a plan of action which, when conflict is involved, probably includes meeting with the individuals involved separately prior to bringing them together. Tools in compassionate listening are taught, strategies are discussed, a short list of trusted friends, family and/or co-workers is generated, people who feel ’safe’ for everyone involved in the conflict. When the time is right and the groundwork laid, a Listening Council is called (sometimes more than one is necessary). During the Council, those involved in the conflict can speak their story, each from his/her own perspective, and be fully heard by the others involved and by the ’sacred witnesses’ in the Council. Full hearted listening generates healing, transformative energy that results in reconciliation and forgiveness, which is the intention of the Council.
Listening Council helps when:
- You want community support and participation in conflict evolution, resolution and reconciliation
- You need to be fully heard rather than given advice from those around you.
- You want understanding rather than costly legal battles in a divorce situation.
- You want help finding a way through suffering to greater peace of mind
