What is Emphatic listening?
Emphatic listening (also called Active listening) is a method to train non-verbal listening skills using theatrical processes created by the theatre facilitator Paolo Senor, who was inspired by the “person-centered approach” to therapy of Carl Rogers. This set of exercises, mainly in pairs, focus on “listening to the other with the listener’s all person” including the embodied memories of the listener that resonate with the feelings and memories the pair is non-verbally expressing. After every exercise, the participants have the opportunity to share the discoveries or difficulties encountered during the exercises. ImaginAction is currently using active listening to carry out psychosocial work with people affected by armed conflict in Colombia and with survivors of natural disasters in Haiti.
