theVERSOgroup » Empathy http://theversogroup.com stop & turn Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:25:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Me Too http://theversogroup.com/archives/149 http://theversogroup.com/archives/149#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:37:35 +0000 Johnny LaLonde http://theversogroup.com/?p=149 It amazes me what people remember whenever I have the opportunity to teach. The things I am positive will have impact often don’t. Things I think will have mild impact often resonate deeper then planned. I think it speaks to the work of the Spirit whenever we are given the chance to teach.
At the UPC Men’s Seminar this past weekend, that topic was “Me Too.” I spoke about how much all of us need to be transparent about who we are and what we struggle with. When we do that, we need to have others around us who can lovingly say, “me too.” This really seemed to stick in the minds of the men at the weekend. I have heard several comments about it already.
Part of me is surprised at my surprise. The very reason I included it was because of how impacting those words have been to my heart. Ironic.
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]]> http://theversogroup.com/archives/149/feed 0 Can You Hear Me At All? http://theversogroup.com/archives/129 http://theversogroup.com/archives/129#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:01:49 +0000 Johnny LaLonde http://theversogroup.com/?p=129 Yesterday, I spoke at UPC for a Life Group Leader Training event. My time was devoted to an overview of listening skills. I think listening is one of the most overlooked skills a person can have. It is far too rare to find someone who really listens to you. It is funny to me how we take such an interest in our kids listening to us. We check to make sure they heard what we said. We make them look at us when we are talking. We sometimes even have them repeat what we say back to us. And yet, throw an adult into a situation when they need to listen and all of these fundamental skills seem lost. Going into the talk I felt self conscious. Who wants to listen to a talk on listening? Isn’t this a basic thing? And yet I and the people there seemed to get a lot out of it.

There have been days when I have come home from counseling frustrated and told my wife, ” counseling exists because people don’t listen.” Far too many of my clients really just need someone to listen to them. And I mean really listen. Not just hear the words. But hear their heart and their story coming through in the circumstances of their life. Sometime down the road I will expand my material and post it on here.

Thanks for listening.

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