Compassionate Listening: An Exploratory Sourcebook About Conflict Transformation

This 25-page e-book shares the work of Quaker peace activist and pastoral counselor Gene Knudsen Hoffman. In her work, Hoffman has drawn on the practise of compassionate listening to guide those experiencing and trying to address conflict in Russia and the Middle East. This book includes both her lesson plans for Compassionate Listening Workshops and reports from Leah Green and Cynthia Monroe, two of her co-pioneers and creative colleagues.

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction (by Dennis Rivers): "Compassionate Listening is not about resolving conflicts directly. It is about helping conflict participants see one another as human, which creates a new mental and emotional space out of which resolutions can emerge. In this respect, Compassionate Listening represents the next step beyond the "interest-based bargaining." Conflict resolutions based only on interests, even on the interests of all the parties to a conflict, are vulnerable to fall apart as soon as someone's material circumstances shift. What is needed is for the conflict participants to be able to identify with one another's sorrows and joys, to feel connected enough to one another to make the peace worth keeping."

Table of Contents:

1. "Compassionate Listening: A First Step Toward Reconciliation" - Gene Knudsen Hoffman
2. "Listening to the Children of Abraham" - Gene Knudsen Hoffman introduces the work of Leah Green and the Mid East Citizen Diplomacy Project
3. Compassionate Listening in the Middle East - Leah Green
4. Working for Reconciliation Under the Northern Lights - Gene Knudsen Hoffman introduces the work of Cynthia Monroe and the Alaskans Listening to Alaskans about Subsistence Project
5. Compassionate Listening as Practiced in Alaska - Cynthia Monroe
6. Lesson Plans for a Course in Compassionate Listening - Gene Knudsen Hoffman
• Introduction: An Evocative Approach to Teaching & Learning
• Session One - Compassion
• Session Two - Hatred
• Session Three - Denial
• Session Four - Forgiveness
• Session Five - Reconciliation
• Session Six - Exploring Thich Nhat Hanh's Approach to the Art of Listening
• Session Seven - Adam Curle's Tools for Transformation
• Homework and Class Exercises

Click here to view the book in HTML format (English language), chapter-by-chapter.

Click here to download the entire book in PDF format (English language).

Click here to download the entire book in PDF format (Portuguese language).