note sure of the date on this
Ingrid's Report from Facilitating an Empathy Circle
Basic Info
*3 participants (including myself) and we were all familiar with NVC
*Total time length was 1.5 hours.
*We agreed at the beginning that it was going to be confidential
Ingrid describes facilitating the empathy circle with friends. The team then discusses.
Agenda
*We all knew each other so we didn't need to introduce
*I gave a little background on the culture of empathy and empathy circle.
*I played the YouTube audio titled "Carl Rogers on Empathy and Presence" and we each talked about what we heard.
*I handed out the Empathy Circle 1 pager and we discussed the process.
*We agreed to talk about whatever was on our minds and to initially allow each speaker about 5 minutes (if they needed to go longer or shorter that was ok).
Feedback
*The other 2 participants did not like the role of the silent listener. They believe that since we are a group of only 3 people that there shouldn't be a silent listener and that both listeners should give empathy to the speaker.
*It worked well for each participant to speak 1 time and to listen 1 time. We did go over the 5 minute guideline; however, that worked well because it allowed each participant to speak and listen 1 time - it wasn't overwhelming or exhausting.
*They asked about books they could read about the process. I told them about the Listening Well book. I also mentioned searching on reflective listening.
(I wish I had a list of resources to give to them - I will look on the EoC website and send them the link.)
*They liked that 1 pager had the website address for the EoC.
*They liked talking about what ever was on their mind for this session.
*We set a date to meet again in a month.
*I can tell that it is really important to emphasize the listener's tips that are on the 1 pager - especially talk a little bit about the roadblocks.
Possible To Do
( ) Design a good explanation why to do the turn taking. While having multiple people give a reflection could be a supportive practice, we want to practice the turn taking process. This will come in handy later for conflict mediation as a basic practice.
( ) Design a list of follow up resources.
( )Design a separate and short list of roadblocks.