Why is it important for there to be only one reflective listener in the empathy circle?
In the empathy circle we take turns being the speaker and the reflective listener.
Participants may feel this rule is constricting. Then want to speak up when they feel like it.
The reason for the turn taking is we want the speaker to have the full attention of the circle until they are heard to their satisfaction.
If people just start talking whenever they want, it turns into all the problems we have in so called normal dialogue, Ie, people interrupt each other, the most aggressive person controls the conversation and takes the attention, etc.
This also creates a fall back structure especially when working with more contentious topics and conflicts. When people get into a conflict they stop listening to each other. If that happens, we can go back to this most basic empathy circle turn taking process and it helps everyone feel heard again.