If You Can Just Listen
If you can just listen, that’s good.
Beginning Co-Counselors often cannot listen well because of the internal pressure to talk themselves. When it’s their turn to listen, they say, okay, go ahead, but are still very inattentive. (demonstrates bad attention)
Often the persons they are “listening” to are so desperate to be listened to that they pretend the other person is listening, and they have a great session!
Later, when better listening is needed, the second person has had a session and is not quite so inattentive, and the process improves. Co-Counseling is a sort of a mutual “take-turns” bootstrapping process. You can’t lift yourself by your own bootstraps, but you can take turns lifting each other.
From pages 9 to 10 of The Art of Listening
(Present Time 207, April 2022)