Quote:
Originally Posted by pachyderm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunrise
Pachy, have you heard of compassionate listening?
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As a definite therapy technique, no. It sounds nice to be "compassionate" but I'm not sure that really tells me much except how the therapist wants to be seen. |
It's not therapists who called it that so I don't think they have that motive.
I think another name for it is "Non-judgmental listening." It is used in a number of contexts, including reconciliation between warring factions. It shares some elements with Non-violent Communication, which has appealed to me greatly since I first heard about it several years ago.
"Compassionate Listening was originated by Gene Knudsen Hoffman... Gene wrote, “Some time ago I recognized that terrorists were people who had grievances, who thought their grievances would never be heard, and certainly never addressed. Later I saw that all parties to every conflict were wounded, and at the heart of every act of violence is an unhealed wound.” In her role as a counselor, Gene recognized that non-judgmental listening was a great healing process in itself.
As Gene originally conceived it, Compassionate Listening requires questions which are non-adversarial and listening which is non-judgmental. Listeners seek the truth of the person questioned, seeing through ‘masks of hostility and fear to the sacredness of the individual.’ Listeners seek to humanize the ‘other’. Listeners accept what others say as their perceptions, and validate the right to their own perceptions. Compassionate Listening can cut through barriers of defense and mistrust, enabling both those listened to and those listening to hear what they think, to change their opinions, and to make more informed decisions. Through this process, fear can be reduced, and participants will be better equipped to discern how to proceed with effective action." --from
http://www.compassionatelistening.org/about
Although Compassionate Listening per se is not a type of therapy, some therapists are trained in compassionate listening. Some therapists are also trained in Non-violent communication, which also has a strong "non-judgmental listening" component.
Compassionate Listening Project:
http://www.compassionatelistening.org/
Non-violent Communication
http://www.cnvc.org/
http://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Com...0626316&sr=8-1
Quote:
Originally Posted by pachyderm
The therapist would start a session by asking the patient to enter a state of watchful self-observation, to report to the therapist on what she observed internally, and to avoid worry about what society or other people would think about what she observed. The therapy consisted of a dialog in which the patient continued to report, with occasional encouragement from the therapist not to judge, but to continue to report. If the patient became agitated or wandered off the track of observing and reporting about what was happening inside, the therapist would gently push her in the direction of calm observation and reporting. This was virtually his entire role: not to comment, not to judge, not to correct. He was there to reassure the patient that reporting everything she observed was the course to take, and to reassure her that that was safe.
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I think this sounds really good and if you think it would be helpful, maybe there is a way to try to find someone who does this. Do you know what it helped people with (the people who said they were cured)? Was it anxiety, depression, other things? Perhaps you can contact the place it was used (a hospital?) and see if they can tell you a name for this therapy or recommend a way to find a practitioner.
In the type of therapy you described, it could go on for several hours at a time, as long as need be, instead of being articially constrained to 50 minutes. I did have an experience like that with a therapist. She was the child specialist who was working with my kids (and their parents) during the divorce--she saw all 4 of us, usually individually, but sometimes the parents together. For my individual sessions with her, we went as long as it took. The first one was 4 hours long.
After that, there wasn't a need to meet much because we had dealt with so much at the first session. I think I had a follow up session which was 2 hours and maybe 1 other. It was so great to just be able to do all that needed to be done up front instead of drawing it out for 10 weeks or more, meeting only 1 hour at a time. There are some advantages to meeting weekly, but sometimes, you can lose steam, and you can waste time getting reacquainted each time, and picking up your thread from the previous week. So if you can find a T who does this, it might work well. If a person shows up on a T's doorstep and says I'll pay you $600 for 4 consecutive $150 sessions, it seems like the T could oblige, if the T and client both agree it would be therapeutic. (And if bathroom breaks are allowed.
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