Posts Tagged ‘Listening’
How to Listen to Yourself During Stressful Times
Listening to ourselves can be harder than it sounds. When we’re having a rough time, we want support from someone who will hear us out, validate our feelings, and offer empathy, perspective, or assistance. We want someone who’s available for us. Yet finding that availability within ourselves, for ourselves, can be elusive. Often, what we…
Is Your Kid “Looping” On a Negative Thought?
As a family therapist, I often hear parents complain of a child who cannot move beyond an interaction, incident or situation, even when it has been addressed. In fact, the parent may have already listened, empathized with the emotion, and talked the issue out. An apology happened. Reassurance was provided. However, the child just cannot…
Convey Hope for Children in Challenging Political Times
As parents and those who work with or care for children, we can agree that children should not be exposed to all adult conversations. Most adults try not to swear in front of kids or discuss parenting topics that could alarm or cause misunderstanding. The developing brain is not cognitively mature. Therefore, kids cannot understand…
You Really Screwed Up AND You Are Lovable
I teach listening and value empathy. A lot. As Carl Rogers says, “[Empathy] just feels damn good.” (If you need a primer on empathy, here is a video that makes it fun and easy to learn about.) I want every human to experience as much good listening and empathy as possible because it is the…
The Best Way to Remember Carrie Fisher, George Michael and our other lost heroes.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/300147700″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] I don’t know about you, but 2016 has taken way too many of my heroes. I’m pretty pissed that I’m supposed to survive without George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Bowie, Cohen, Prince. Losing these lives who symbolized my youth shook me with the too sudden awareness of my mortality…
Listening to Complaining: A Response to INC. Magazine
Judging complainers instead of listening harms rather than helps organizations and communities and directly impacts our collective mental health.
Keeping Your Relationship Thriving, Part 1: Up Your Listening Game
How many times have you heard “relationships take effort?” Was this advice offered up smugly, with one of those close-mouthed grins of sympathy? Maybe you nodded furtively in response and vowed to remember date nights no matter how busy you got. Wait, what? Date nights are not the magic elixir. Don’t get me wrong, time…
“Hear me!”: Some Thoughts on Listening and the Longing to be Heard
Here’s what I think: There is a serious lack of listening going on in our world. Would you agree? I’m pretty confident that if humans were listening more, we wouldn’t still be using bombs and guns to try to solve our conflicts. I’m pretty sure that if we were listening more, we wouldn’t be spending…