Listening Councils

A Circle for Conflict Resolution, Personal Growth and Community Healing

Vision

We envision a world where communities provide love, support and Compassionate Listening to those in conflict and/or personal crisis. We envision a community where everyone feels like an insider, everyone’s gifts are seen, valued and contribute to the wholeness and health of the community.

What we offer

We work as a team or individually facilitating Listening Councils. If you are in a conflict and would like a Listening Council for yourself, or if you are in a situation involving others that also are interested in a resolution, we would hold Listening Councils with all involved parties separately and then together.

What they look like

Listening Councils consist of anywhere from 3-10 people including at least one trained facilitator. Specific listeners may be invited by the person requesting the council, or facilitators will provide trained listeners. Councils may meet only once, or several times as in the case of conflicts with others. Each council generally lasts between 1-2 hours.

Training in Listening Councils

We also can come to your community and teach this method of conflict resolution. If you are interested in learning how to set this up, how the Listening Councils are facilitated, how the listeners in the council are trained, and how to make this service available in your community, please contact us to set up a training.

History

Listening Councils were started after 9/11 as a new model for healing conflicts within our communities. Brian Berman along with Therese Charvet (www.sacredgroves.com) developed this model seeing the need to listen to the suffering of those in conflict, and as a means of preventing future violence. Listening Councils offer a safe place to express emotion, an opportunity for the depth of the difficulty or conflict to be revealed and accepted, and a way through the suffering into a new freedom where the gifts of the situation can be identified and appreciated.

Contact

brian@BermanHealingArts.com or lisa@BermanHealingArts.com

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