Why Interested

Why are you interested in taking part in developing this Empathy Training?

EDWIN RUTSCH

I just watched a documentary by Frontline last night about the horrors of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar. It is a extreme example of the lack of empathy in the world. I had heard similar stories growing up about my family's experience in WW II.

The world is full of many personal and social problems and I feel that empathy is the way to address them. Living an empathic way of being also feels good. So, I’ve dedicated the rest of my life to building a culture of empathy and one of the ways of doing that is to have training.

I feel there is a need for a good quality systematic multimedia empathy training (& MOOC) that is freely available to the general public to train people in these skills.. I haven’t seen an online training that I am happy with and I’d like to organize this initiative to build one.

I’ve tried creating an empathy curriculum before, but it hasn’t materialized. With the release of the new book ‘Listening Well’, I see this as a good framework and foundation for building this online Training MOOC. It gives a good foundational structure. So I feel excited and driven to start this project. I hope we can bring this training to the point that we can offer this as a course that people can take on their own or as facilitated paid training that can be done in person or online. It would be a way for our team members to generate an income.

Andrea

My background with empathy starts with historical education. Before his execution in 1944 by the Nazis, Marc Bloch announced his concerns with historical education. He stated, “What is the use of history, when the values of the past are being ruthlessly discarded”. The value of information is directly impacted with its quantity; the former declines as the latter increases. YouTube channels dedicated to gruesome acts of violence and the availability of grotesque imagery at the click of a mouse desensitized a generation. Man’s inhumanity to man is unfortunately eternal. This truth is magnified when the tragedy is recent and too close for comfort, such as the recent media coverage of active shooters in public spaces and schools.

Rather than isolate the incidents for comprehension, humanity, as a whole, must look to the real source of the problem for solutions: lack of empathy. When the horrific enters everyday life as something distant and abstract, it becomes difficult to understand the humanity involved within the trauma. A world of video and images created the dehumanization of the other. Intentional or not, if the horrifying event does not physically impact one and his/her immediate family, then it is deemed unimportant. Empathy has given way to apathy.

For this reason, emotional intelligence, diversity, and empathy education is necessary for modern society. Knowledge and a thorough understanding of the culture and history of one’s counterpart diminishes divisions and reveals human continuity. I am fully aware that I still have many techniques and methods to learn; however, my confidence in humanity and the passion that comes from my fiance's life that was cut short is never-ending. My enthusiasm and commitment to the betterment of society ultimately defines my overall philosophy of life. And since someone has already concisely stated my beliefs, I will end with his comment: To educate a man in mind and not morals, is to educate a menace to society – Theodore Roosevelt

Daya

My understanding of empathy started with learning Nonviolent communication. In that process I was able to understand listen deeply to my challenges and trauma and slowly I was able to understand other’s pain. I was once called by a friend to intervene in a situation where a girl of about 15 years had locked herself up after a conflict with her mom and her mom was scared she would do something harmful to herself. I wanted to try empathy and I went there and first held space for the mother and later for the daughter who I have not seen till today. I was holding empathic listening for this girl from outside her locked door.

I left after we were able to agree together that she would come out in 10 minutes. 5 minutes after I left their house I got a call from her mom that the girl came out of the room was eating and interacting with her. This experience shifted my understanding of empathy more in a way that i saw that it was possible to help people being heard in tense and charged situations. After this I have tried some listening to people who are involved in activism and seen and received feedback that they were able to feel calm and see different perspectives after being heard deeply.

Having such experiences and when I saw on facebook about empathy tent last year and when I saw the intention to create a curriculum which can be accessible to people to learn the skills to create spaces to hear themselves and others, I was very excited and wanted to be involved in this process.

I feel that when people are able to hear each other with empathic listening, about the hardest of differences of thought they may have, connection healing and moving forward together would be possible. In India I dont see it reaching NVC much into the community with random workshops / trainings happening. I see a lot of conflicts and pain within the community also. I want to be able to create a system to offer empathic space in my community and I have a sense that with all of you it would be inspiring a togetherness and supporting each other in doing and developing a very deeply meaningful process I believe in.

Deborah

I found this quote decades ago and love its simplistic but profound point, (author unknown) “Everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to change their mind/heart”. I added “heart” to this.

I am taking this training to activate my ability to relate, connect and experience heartfelt wholeheartedness in a deeper and more expressive way. I tend to be guarded and have been working for decades to reduce my intellectualization of my experience with some positive results but not to the degree I want.

My direction is intrapersonal, meaning if more of us were more emphatically aligned with our truth, and the truth of others moment to moment, there would be less misunderstanding and confusion and more time to live our lives in ways more satisfying besides bickering about right and wrong, or trying to convince the other to believe our view. There are multiple views that can live together in harmony.

There are more commonaities than differences to be found if we pause to listen and understand, and put dominance aside. It’s easy for me to paint my emotional needs with a broad brush on the world canvas and down play my personal needs. So speaking and listening for personal empathic reasons is actually a big challenge for me. I feel vulnerable about sharing emphatically, and have historical beliefs it won't matter in the long run ( family history arising here). But ultimately, when I come to realize my own personal needs are just as valuable as others, then others become just as valuable as mine.

I began this journey of questioning how we usually do not value self and others without hierarchy, division or judgement about 60 years ago, along with a variety of learning curves along the way, as we all have had. My NVC learning curve started around 1993 and my Buddhist practices that have also been a huge part of my learning curve began in 1978. I continue to cherish learning. My ultimate goal is to teach others the value of experiencing empathy for themselves and its value for others.

Cielja Kieft

I have been on the search for peaceful living together for as long as I can remember, and I found that empathy is the key to this. I was a theatre director and voice trainer for actors when I encountered the Parent Effectiveness Training. Since then (28 years ago ) I became a PET and TET trainer, so active listening was a delightful skill for me to use. However I always added more components to the training and since the beginning of this year I designed Empathic Communication Academy with a 4 module Empathic Communication Training for adults and teens, and Pretend Drama for 5-8yo.

As words are only a few percent of what we ‘broadcast’, the underlying thoughts, ideas and feelings are sent out via our expression in sound, body language etc. How can you use all your senses and even the sixth sense to capture what a person is communicating?

I planned to bring out an online training once I would have given the training in person several times and had worked out the ’glitches’. I feel that the Empathy Training multimedia training came as a ‘God-sent’ to speed up the process as well to make Empathy Training much wider available than I could have done alone!

Bill Filler

I’m interested in helping to create an empathy-centered curriculum and sharing it with the world.

Varsha Shah

I felt the need of empathy and really understood its significance about it early last year while I was set to resolve to foster universal human values through dance performance project. To undertook the project on empathy specifically because when I encountered myself being judged 4 years ago, I felt deep hurt and felt that most of the time I was not being understood. I felt helpless and felt a deep desire to do something about it. I felt that lack of empathy distance people from one another.

Since then I started wondering how could one understand another person and see others for who they truly are. I started empathizing with my family members and started wondering how did they survive relationships with other and how they felt in similar situations like mine. I also wondered about the mental state of mind of people who encounter cultural or class differences within the families.

I felt the urgent need of it in the society.

As a Classical Indian dance artist, an educator and an activist, I am interested in introducing and incorporating these universal human values into its framework that can be made accessible to masses and can empower masses and eliminate cultural element from it.

I am interested in this training program to develop a prototype for the dance curriculum and eventually make it a business to take it globally through dance performances and education wherever I can.

Bob Brown

I believe everyone has the option of working toward a world (galaxy? universe?) where we are all united in one joyful family. Being empathic is one of the best means to accomplish this. Looking forward to becoming a better human being.

Peter Przeradzki

Hello group! I’m mostly here for fun. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about empathy and compassion, and I am considering my role in developing skill sets for people to use in their day to day lives which are effective, useful, and interesting to use. I deeply enjoy the stuff I’ve seen come out of Edwin’s work in the past, as it mixes internet media, in person work, and loving compassion for everyone around us.

I’m hoping to do some similar work in the future, and this is a way for me to test that space out in my heart, and to see if I can get comfortable enough with the skills I already have so that I can really start that work. Good luck all!

Rita

I am fascinated by the power of empathic listening. I truly believe that by inspiring others with the potential of empathic listening, they will want to embody and live a life of empathic connection.

I wish we learned empathy in school, and in fact, bringing empathy to schools and building a culture of empathy for children to bath in, as in a language or subject class. Eventually whey will carry the empathic energy to their world as they grow up. Helping families and associations engage and adopt empathy would bring a peaceful energy where we can connect with each others among our differences.

Jessica

The reason I am interested in taking part in developing an Empathy training is because I realized that empathic listening is crucial in communication, therefore in relationships, therefore in life! I am obsessed with communication,

• how can we avoid misunderstanding?

• How can we embrace conflict?

• How can we bring back more joy in our daily communication?

• Etc.

Empathy is a game changer so having accessible trainings would really make the world, our homes, countries a much joyful place. I want to increase my empathic understanding, become a “first nature” (and not just a second once) for myself and I also would like to train and find a way to generate income.

Dimitra

I am particularly interested because Empathy is closey connected to both my professional and academic life. As a teacher, I believe that empathy can help students trust their teacher and open up themselves to them while in my academic life what I am studying is the role of empathy in the digital classroom. What is more, in a personal level, I think that empathy is a sine qua non element without which we cannot build long-lasting and meaningful relationship with others.

Stephan

I am a psychiatrist working with adults and adolescents with severe mental illness and substance use disorders. I have training in CBT, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and mindfulness-based interventions. I teach medical students and residents and am looking for a simple way to teach empathic listening skills to these trainees.

Ingrid

The main reason I am interested is because learning about empathy has changed my life - significantly. A few years ago I started learning about nonviolent communication (NVC) and the empathy component of NVC seemed to make the biggest difference for me (as far as connecting and communicating with people). I also have an interest in training and believe that an online empathy course could be a valuable training tool for myself and others.

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Pauline

Thank you for today, it is exciting to be at the beginning of something so potentially momentous. I have just been watching how Trump and the religious right in America are justifying support for Israel’s continuing persecution of the Palestinians. There has never been a time when empathy is more needed. I am taking part in this process, as I said on the call, because it resonates with my values and connects directly into my work, as a coach, and as an organisational learning and development facilitator.

I am bringing knowledge/ideas/skills from a number of sources -

• from personal experience,

• from coaching theory,

• from ULAB and Art of Hosting,

• from theatre and

• from years of work with community and multi stakeholder dialogue and engagement.

Bunny

I have just implemented a grief support service so would like to ensure that I am delivering empathy, so developing the skill is important to me

Vicenç

I like the idea on embarking in a new project about sorting listening skills and finding accessible ways to bring them to people who are willing to improve their listening abilities.

I also like the idea of creating a MMOC

Greg

As a trainer/teacher I’m constantly looking for processes that will engage learners and enhance their ability to practice and take home the concepts. As a Motivational Interviewing practitioner, I think empathy is what the world needs more of, particularly in this day of rhetoric and division, of taking sides and taking a stand. When I got the notice about this opportunity, I was finishing up a training on the facilitation of restorative justice circles and was intrigued by the process/platform’s function of building safety and maintaining/repairing relationships.