Who is the Listening Hour for?

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Everyone home educating, alternative education in self directed learning communities. You are also welcome if you are interested in non violent communication.

 

Come if you want to practice listening.

 

Come if you’d enjoy a listening ear.​

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It is a free of charge, confidential, online space.

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The Empathy Hour is a guided and supported, peer listening space. It is not suitable if you are going through significant emotional upheaval or for processing trauma. If you are, click here for the "Alternative Pathways for Support" page.

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Feelings

Learning alongside and facilitating children and young people's learning can bring so many feelings with it. Joy, anxiety, uncertainty, jealousy, confidence, loneliness, compassion to name just a few.​

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Needs

It can also bring up needs, such as the need for community, the need for accompaniment, the need to feel that you, as a person, make sense, for space, for freedom, for understanding, the list of universal human needs is long!

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Making The Path by Walking It

Since beginning my home ed journey in 2014 I have needed a sense of belonging, to be heard, to matter, to care and be cared for. My journey hasn’t been a straight path and I’m aware that it takes a lot for us to forge a new road by walking it, within a culture at large that doesn’t generally understand what we value and why.

 

Empathic Listening

It’s mostly thanks to the ways that empathic listening has helped me with emotional struggles that I have learnt and now offer to share this approach to feelings, needs and self compassion with listening at the heart. I ran two sessions for home educators at the Really Wild Home Ed Gathering and realised that I'd love to offer more.

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Non Violent Communication

Created by Marshall Rosenberg as a way to find the deeper connection that is possible between people and with ourselves. more here https://nvc-uk.com/

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Why Empathy Hour?

Having learnt non violent communication since 2017 and taught it since 2020, I wanted to create community and offer support to those educating differently. Having been a host on The Listening Hour, a weekly listening space on Sundays at 12pm using non violent communication, I saw how supportive and powerfully transformative this practice is and wanted to share it. 

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Your Hosts

This online peer listening space is hosted by Lottie Child and members of the Listening Hour Team.

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The Listening Hour

The Listening Hour started during lock-down and comes from the UK non violent communication (NVC) community.

We start each Listening Hour with a brief introduction to how it works and the ground rules for confidentiality.

 

The session begins with a check-in, asking people how they are feeling and at the end we ask people to share what needs of theirs have been met. Find a list here https://nvcacademy.com/media/NVCA/learning-tools/needs-list.pdf

 

Everyone gets an opportunity to be heard in groups of three, using the principles of empathic listening.

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We use listening and guessing for the universal human needs as a safe container. This is a peer space and no one is asked to fix anything for anyone.

 

We aim to nurture a sense of calm, community, acceptance, belonging, connection, and joy.

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My main motivation is my own needs for community and belonging and a longing to contribute to home educating families.​

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With Warm Wishes,

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Lottie

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