Red/Blue Concerns…. or anything else that’s alive in you…

Many of us are concerned about the political climate in our country right now. Wherever we are on the red-blue continuum, many of us would like to be able to express our concerns without being argued with or judged.

The purpose of Empathy Circles is to practice a simple listening skill that can benefit both speaker and active listener. The speaker speaks in short sentences to clarify what’s important to them. The active listener listens in order to understand what the speaker has said. The silent listeners observe the interaction, and the facilitator steps in only if needed.

In an Empathy Circle, one person facilitates, one person speaks, one person actively reflects back what the speaker has expressed, and a few others are silently observing. After 3 or four minutes, if the speaker feels fully heard, the active listener becomes the speaker and chooses someone to listen to them. Everyone gets to be the speaker, the active listener, and the silent observer, at least once per session.

Empathy Circles are not therapy, although they may feel therapeutic. They are delimited in scope to offer the essence of what’s necessary for an individual to feel heard.

This Empathy Circle is specifically designed to help us express feelings about the political issues of our day, discussions that can sometimes be argumentative and unsatisfying in informal, un-structured conversations like those with family and friends.

If this interests you, whether you’re familiar with, or new to, Empathy Circles, we’d love to have you join us.

Please turn your video on for introductions and please mute your audio while not speaking.

RSVP / Registration is required for each meeting.