Want a Listening Salon in your neighborhood?
Want a place where once a week you can practice your listening skills in exchange for being listened to?
Imagine having a place in your neighborhood where once a week or fortnight you could be really heard uninterrupted just for the price of learning to listen in this way to someone else.
Contact us start a salon in your neighborhood coffee shop, church, gathering place. We provide the materials and support.
Listening Planet’s
Listening Salon Movement
Basic Description of the plan for Listening Salons
Listening Planet / Marcia McReynolds
Our goal is to provide example and materials for Listening Salons to be established coffeehouses and other neighborhood gathering places. We began in Vancouver, WA, in June 2010 and eventually hope to spread the idea and materials to as many public places in the world as possible so people can learn and practice really listening to one another.
Our vision: a Listening Salon in every neighborhood in the world.
Imagine having a place to go in your neighborhood every week to both practice your listening skills and be listened to.
What is a Listening Salon?
A Listening Salon is a structured social opportunity in regular gathering place for people in a community to practice listening skills, be really listened to, and in turn, create community together.
A Listening Salon project works generally like this:
Venue:
The Salon takes place at a local coffee shop or public gathering place where people hang out. The place might have sofas, internet connection, good ambiance, or a City Repair structure that draws people to it. The energy for gathering is already there.
Really Listening Training:
Each month, 2 classes are offered. An introductory listening class is given for beginners. This 1- 1/2 hour class trains a person in the tenets of really listening and gets everyone on the same page.
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Format of Listening Salon
Listening Lessons:
On, say, each Tuesday night there is a Listening Salon at a given location. On the first Tuesday of each month there is a Listening Lesson given either by me (Marcia McReynolds), a local person with a curriculum created by me, or a video that I have made which a facilitator stops at intervals for participants to practice the accumulating skills. After the lesson people get a chance to practice their listening skills casually as they hang out and talk with each other. If someone has already taken that lesson, they can drop by after the lesson to chat.
Open Salons:
On the other Tuesday nights of the month there is an Open Salon where people come ready to share and to listen. Over the course of an hour and a half, people will be paired up with three different people for Listening Rounds (if they want to stay with the person they began with, they may).
During the Listening Rounds:
People have an opportunity to learn listening skills. They also have an opportunity to share whatever is on their mind--an idea, a problem, a decision, their calling, etc.--- and have another learner really listen.
During each "round" they first introduce themselves and tell something about themselves (they are given teasers to help them along). Then they each share and listen, in turn. They may share anything they want to share, how their day went, a frustration, a decision they have to make, something they are angry about, an idea, a hope. The listeners, who just listen, not provide advice or their own story, reflect back, ask questions to help the speaker access their own thoughts, and allow silence instead of interrupting or filling it. The speaker is given the gift of sharing without someone else's personality getting mixed up in it.
Feedback:
Afterwards, listeners have the option of receiving some feedback from their partners about how they listened and what they might need to work on. They will also be given a question the person who shared wanted to be asked or was asked that really helped them access their own wisdom.
Food:
There is also food shared at the salons inviting people to stay and socialize more.
Listening Table:
During the week there is a designated table at the gather place with a bowl with The Listening Cards in it. It is the Listening Table. Anyone who sits there is open to listen and to share with whoever wishes to sit down there. They do not have to be trained in listening to listen here, although they are encouraged by a flyer at each table to attend one in the future. Marcia McReynolds, the Listening Lady, will frequent these tables and listen to people for a donation.
Who can attend?
Everybody is welcomed to attend the salons or sit at a table. Of course, the proprietors can use their own discretion. People can attend salons when and if they choose. They do not have to attend every time. However, they must have taken an introductory class in how to really listen in order to attend.
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• Order Classroom of Cards
• Contact Me for Cirriculum
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