How to Listen to your Teen and have your Teen Hear you:
A Workshop sponsored by Teen Talking Circles of Bainbridge Island

Being a parent is the greatest gift we can have in life, and sometimes it is one of the most down-right frustrating, frightening, complex and painful experiences we know. Part of this comes from not feeling we can get through to our children, especially when they are teenagers. All the good ideas and best intentions to communicate go down the drain when we just blow our tops out of sheer frustration that we just are not communicating. And this goes both ways.

So what can we do about it? How can we communicate what we're thinking, feeling, sensing, seeing, and knowing? How can we listen to each other when we don't agree? Where is the bridge we can take to stay connected and loving with each other when we feel we're at opposite ends of the spectrum and risk losing our connection?

Compassionate Listening is the answer we've found. Founded by Leah Green and used in the middle east between deep rivals, Compassionate Listening has been the single most valuable practice we've used in our family circles, our TTC Trainings, Women's Retreats, and Teen Talking Circles.

Come spend a day with Linda Wolf and Genevieve Wolf Smeeth exploring how you can use this invaluable tool in all your relationships, especially with the ones you love most.

The practice of Compassionate Listening helps us to awaken to what the mystics from all of the great faiths have known for centuries: that cultivating the wisdom of the heart is the key to real peace "from the inside out."

"The intelligence of the heart is confirmed in recent findings in the field of Neurocardiology on the heart-brain relationship. In Compassionate Listening, our emphasis is on strengthening the influence of the heart through cultivating compassion for ourselves and each other, and learning to listen and speak from the heart - even in the heat of conflict. The practice of Compassionate Listening teaches us how to reach through layers of defensiveness and reactivity to our essential core. From there, we can shift communication and relationships into heart-to-heart interaction. Participants in our experiential workshops learn powerful skills for peace-making with family, community, in the workplace and beyond. We are truly learning to BE the peace we wish to see in the world, as Gandhi so eloquently challenged us to do.

In this workshop you'll learn and practice the Five Core Practices of Compassionate Listening:
* Cultivating Compassion and a willingness to connect even when not in agreement;
* Developing the Fair Witness by remaining open in conflict situations;
* Respecting Self and Others by developing boundaries which protect yet include;
* Listening with the Heart to create a spaciousness which allows divergence and finds a deeper point of connection;
* Speaking from the Heart with language which reflects a healing intention." ©Compassionate Listening Project

Workshop Facilitators: Linda Wolf & Genevieve Wolf Smeeth, mother and daughter have been using Compassionate Listening practice in their relationship for many years. Linda is the founder/executive director of Teen Talking Circles, author of Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood, recipient of the Athena Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and a certified member of the facilitation team of the Compassionate Listening Project. Genevieve Wolf Smeeth is a co-facilitator of the Bainbridge Island Girl's Talking Circle, co-trainer of the Art of Facilitating Teen Talking Circles Training, and co-leader of Women's Sacred Circle Retreats and student at Seattle Central College.

"If we can change ourselves, we can change the world. We're not the victims of the world we see, we're the victims of the way we see the world. This is the essence of Compassionate Listening: seeing the person next to you as a part of yourself."- Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Congressman

Suggested donation: $75 (with lunch) $65 (bring your own lunch) in advance (plus small online fee) - $100 at the door

For more information about the Compassionate Listening Project,  go to: www.compassionatelistening.org

For more information about this and other Teen Talking Circle workshops or trainings, go to: www.teentalkingcircles.org or contact us at 206-842-3000