PRACTICES FOR SUPPORTIVE LISTENING

Facilitator:

Location: Vashon (20-min ferry from W. Seattle)

Vashon Island - Cedar Spring Farm

Date and Time:

Sun, Dec 4, 2016

10:45 AM - 5:30 PM

Details

This event has been cancelled.

I am excited to be offering a workshop on how to listen to one another in ways that are deeply supportive. This workshop is both for those new to NVC and those with a great deal of experience. I feel excited about this topic for a number of reasons:

One human being coming to another with a “problem” that they are concerned about is a common event. Yet, the ways we respond to this sort of occurrence are typically much less helpful than what is possible. We can learn to be far more supportive of one another.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) practitioners learn to “offer empathy” as a means of support for clarity, connection, and healing. This powerful practice is worth learning. And, yet even for those familiar with the basics of this practice, there is typically a great deal more that can be learned about how to listen in ways that are even more helpful in offering support.

Listening to someone, and responding only in ways that support them in feeling heard and hearing themselves more deeply, can be a profoundly satisfying experience for both speaker and listener. It can help the speaker to “settle,” feel more grounded, peaceful, and clear -- and even support the speaker’s own innate wisdom in offering solutions.

Skills involved in doing supportive listening can also help everyday conversations flow more smoothly.

There are a number of strands of insight and experience I hope to weave together during our day together:

The universal longing to be heard and to hear ourselves
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) - what matters most to us, and what indicates that
Humanistic psychology / Focusing - support for our innate wisdom emerging
Interpersonal Neurobiology - resonance, warmth, going beyond logic
Somatic practices, Living Compassion - awareness of our bodies, energies
Fruits of experience - being more natural and connecting

What I’ve learned from these different lineages is synergistic and complementary, while also presenting us with some choices. Learning NVC dramatically increased my ability to listen to people in ways that were supportive, and things I’ve learned since then have resulted in further dramatic improvements in my capacity.

During our day together, we will demonstrate and practice a number of related approaches, so that you can refine your skills and explore what blend might be right for you. We will give some attention to what is going on conceptually -- and a majority of our time will be spent in experiential learning.

I am looking forward to a day that I hope will be rich in learning, and in experiences of hearing and being heard.

Please join us!

(Recently I had the opportunity to spend time with someone who learned how to listen directly from the originator of Focusing, and taking in his insights was one of the inspirations for my wanting to offer this workshop.)

Let me (Bob (b o b AT DOMAIN nwcompass~org)) know if you need a ride from the ferry or have questions.

Bob Wentworth, Ph.D., is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. He likes to combine the clear thinking of a scientist with compassionate support for living out our deepest human aspirations. Students inspired by his teaching have brought him to teach in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. He has also taught in India and around the U.S. This is one of his first workshops in the Pacific Northwest.

What to bring:

Ideally, pack a lunch. Restaurants and grocery stores are about 3 miles from the workshop venue.

Tuition Details:

The tuition is between $50.00 and $150.00.

Please choose your own price, from $50 to $150. Paying more will support Bob in being able to make a living and will support others in being able to benefit from this work even if they can't pay as much.

You can pay via PayPal at https://www.paypal.me/BobWentworth

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