Vision
Moving toward an emotionally richer life, with deeper meaning and connection. A deeper awareness and sensitivity.
Where do you see the experience of empathy and empathy circles moving toward?
"It brought me a sense of ease. Hearing things twice deepens the connection."
Edwin Rutsch
Edwin Rutsch
Written Response
Feel Effectiveness and Involvement
Empathy Circles are the best way I have found to practice empathic listening. With only 4 people in the circle I feel like I get a lot of personal interaction or involvement. I don’t enjoy listening to other people talk for extended periods of time, (like in a lecture or in large groups) because I feel impatient and become disconnected and want more personal interaction, engagement, and involvement. I get that in an empathy circle.
Feel Deeply Heard and Connected
I enjoy being deeply heard. It gives me a feeling of spaciousness and relieves stress. And have a sense of connection.
Feel Clarity and Ease
I don’t have to compete to be heard. There are also clear ‘rules’ on how to dialogue.
Easy to Setup
It is a relatively easy to use process that gives a lot of benefits. It’s the 20/80 rule. For 20 percent effort, you get 80 percent of the benefits.
A Gateway Practice
Getting good at empathic listening can then be used in a lot of other ways.
Don't need a super trained facilitator, it is easy and accessible to enjoy an empathy circle, releasing a cluttered mind and enjoy hearing and witnessing others insights
Empathic listening, active listening and focusing in an empathy circle, lots of emotional movement in the process and this seems like an easy step, a good first step of listening to each other and focus on deep dives.
Mediation, taking on other roles, supporters of for and against, working with conflict, reflective listening and use empathic circles in groups as a nice first step, using role plays, empathy circle being used as a gateway. Two levels, stepping into a role, empathic listening, adding to the spacing that is a core component that can be used.
Feeling heard
When I say something, I’m not sure that is has really been heard or that people even want to hear it.. Having grown up in a family that didn’t really listen deeply, it feels awkward to speak and to even bother speaking when people are not listening. Perhaps I assume they are not listening from the get go, or I need a lot of signs that they are listening to feel they are interested and for me to feel heard. In an empathy circle, the reflection really makes me have that sense of feeling heard. I don’t need to question it. It’s the difference between feeling a jaggedness of disconnection and hopelessness in speaking, to feeling a sense of connection and involvement and dialogue.
Like A battery
Get a empathy charge
An expansion of the brain
A whole group or community feeling