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Listening Skills
Because young people bring all of themselves with them when the go on retreat—their joys and sorrows, pains, struggles, successes and victories—Retreat Leaders and Retreat Team Members need to know how to listen in ways that help youth encounter God’s grace, love and mercy already present and active in their lives. To be able to tend to the spiritual needs of youth, to their health and well-being, and, if necessary, to safeguard them against danger, retreat leaders and team members must be skilled at what has been called active or redemptive listening.
This workshop will familiarize participants with the basic skills of active listening, including: avoiding communication roadblocks; establishing a listening posture and behavior; reflection of content and feelings through paraphrasing, summarizing and reflecting behaviors and feelings. Important: this workshop cannot thoroughly impart these skills; rather, the workshop is meant to be a starting point or orientation to basic communication skills that must be developed and refined later. -
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