Exploring Deep Listening with the British Council and BBC
More than 200 professionals from educational and non-governmental organisations had a unique chance to experience how does it feel to be truly listened and heard in these times of rush. Reflecting today’s public life filled with social tensions and divisions two days of March were dedicated to the Deep Listening approach developed and presented by a lecturer from the United Kingdom, a long-standing BBC journalist Emily Kasriel.
A practical training guided teachers, youth workers, representatives of NGO’s, educators, and specialists through every step of Deep Listening and was arranged by the British Council Lithuania as part of the People to People. cultural engagement programme.
As a transformational approach, Deep Listening enables people to build meaningful dialogues and, therefore, understand different perspectives better. It explains how the listener engages in the conversation, rendering such listening as curious, empathetic and respectful to the speaker. The method analyses how the listeners are affected by their own views or prejudices and helps to connect with speaker’s emotions and what they intend to convey.
According to trainer Emily Kasriel, “Developing active listening techniques is essential to creating understanding and the authentic relationships necessary for social change.” This gathering of Deep Listening has awakened ideas and initiated discussions both, personal-inner and social-outer about a significance of being listened and heard, and how essential a respectful conversation can be when we seek for trust, cooperation and social change.
