Listening to the Tune Dialogue Sessions
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Come join with me to practise the art of listening and compassionate, non-judgemental, communication. I returned full of hope from a trip to Israel and Palestine with the Compassionate Listening Project, a group working towards peace in the Middle East. The trip inspired me to set up dialogue sessions in my home community to explore how the art of listening can bring peace to our lives
Why listen? Conflicts arise when the fundamental human needs of all those involved are neither heard nor met. Giving the gift of listening allows people in conflict to delve beneath entrenched positions to express their underlying feelings and needs, to establish heart to heart connections regardless of whether they agree or not on the facts, to recognise the humanity of the other, to be present to one another. This is the case whether the conflict is at the level of nations, families, communities, organisatons or individuals.
How it works: In the dialogue sessions, we agree to speak for ourselves, not as representatives of a group, to speak from our experience, to own our feelings, to aim for understanding, not persuasion or agreement, to listen without reacting or interrupting, and to check out assumptions.
General Listening to the Tune Dialogue Sessions - we come together as individuals, open to listening to each other and learning the skills of compassionate listening, using experiences from our lives.
Specific themes:
Dialogue Sessions about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict for members of the Jewish community – I run dialogue sessions based on a guidebook produced by the Jewish Dialogue Group of Philadelphia – Constructive Conversations About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – a guide for convening and facilitating dialogue in the Jewish communities in the US. The aim is to create a safe space where Jews can talk about their hopes, fears, views and feelings about Israel without being attacked, where we can explore our own and each others’ perspectives.
Dialogue sessions for Jewish-Muslim understanding – I am involved with Radio Salaam Shalom, an Internet radio station set up to promote understanding between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Bristol, UK. I run dialogue sessions for Jews and Muslims to listen and learn about each other.
Dialogue sessions for people concerned about the teaching of sexuality in the school system.
