Listening in psychotherapy and counseling is partly art and partly science. This week I have the good fortune of having a blog piece I wrote on Listening as Meditation published at psychotherapy.net. You can access this blog piece — and other excellent psychotherapy.net blog pieces — at: http://www.psychotherapy.net/blog
Have an excellent and mindful Wednesday.
John SF
John Sommers-Flanagan 
Hi John,
Great thoughts! Two things came to my mind as I was contemplating your blog.
First, regarding the parallel processing we experience in therapy with our clients and how that is an art in itself. When I first began to understand and embrace what the client was sharing with me while at the same time searching my own mental archives for effective tools to care for them, I remember thinking, “this is so amazing!” So, “listening as meditation” sounds like it could have a similar effect.
Second, Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” (1987) reminds us of how important it is to be prepared for what the client brings into therapy. It’s about allowing the unknown. So, as therapists, if we are to open up to meditation with our clients’ narrative, it goes without saying that we need to be prepared by being fully aware of our own witches, ghosts and wolves.
Into the woods,
Where nothing’s clear,
Where witches, ghosts
And wolves appear.
Into the woods
And through the fear,
You have to take the journey…
Into the woods–you have to grope,
But that’s the way you learn to cope.
Into the woods to find there’s hope
Of getting through the journey.
Thank you for sharing and allowing all of us to share.
Una