Wednesday October 19th 5:15-6:45 Benalla Library meeting room
Wednesday November 16th time TBC (during the day might be another option rather than evening?)
Wednesday December 7th
Empathy cafés are a connective community building activity that practices reflective listening. In a small group of 3-4 people, take turns listening in response to a prompting question. You will learn to listen out for, and hear the other person, reflecting what they said, which can be helpful in resolving conflict, and gives the listener the opportunity to see the speaker's perspective. Reflective listening helps the speaker to feel seen and heard and can support your nervous system to relax and it's really easy to learn.
This event, in partnership with Benalla Sustainable Futures Group, is being facilitated by Rachel DeSumma and a team of Empathy Cafe facilitators.
We are committed to building stronger, connected communities with skills to thrive and relate well with each other.
The skills you learn at an Empathy café can continue to be used in your relationships with loved ones, colleagues and with the broader community. Once you start empathic listening you won't want to stop!
This is the first of a series of six monthly Empathy cafes with a different prompting question each session.
Topic for Session 1: What I love about life is...
The topic has been kept very open for the first session. We hope to incorporate climate grief as well and climate anxiety, but want to start a bit lighter and deepen into other topics over time.
If you have any suggestions on topics please let me know. Keen to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Rachel