The Listening Workshop

Language is our greatest gift and conversations are our most powerful and meaningful behavior. Join us for a highly experiential workshop that could change your life forever.

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We possess Language. We do not yet Communicate

Language is the pre-eminent adaptation of our species. Our remarkable capacity to compose complex messages has allowed us to cooperate and collaborate all the way to the hugely powerful yet precarious place we now inhabit as the most dominant species on the planet.

With this super-power there is really nothing we cannot do.

Yet, at times we fail to understand each other or feel completely heard. In many respects, we are still slaves to the evolutionary origins of speaking. We listen through filters of personal interpretation and value, and we speak to elevate our status. We bide our time in conversation waiting for others to stop talking so we can advance our own thought or view.

There is strong evidence to suggest that as social pressures on our species increased, our communication abilities expanded while our emotional aptitude lagged behind. Human emotions were forged in the Pleistocene when social groups were small and familiar. Today communication is a flurry of abstract expressions emanating from a roiling sea of strangers.

We are confronted with more adverse and disruptive emotions in a day than our ancestors faced in a year.

Now, more than ever, we need a way of communicating that quiets reactivity, deepens understanding and allows for the unknown or emergent to be revealed. Surprising new perspectives, creativity, and connections come from this new way of paying attention. 

The Cosentini Listening Project– examines experientially how we listen and how we can expand this capacity to see beyond words and into the world of another. This approach to language uses this exemplary skill of ours to its fullest potential. Conversations of this nature are not conducted to win, attain status or be right, they are engaged in for adventure, exploration and a profound expansion of understanding.  

For a conventional conversation you need logic, judgment and your opinions. To have a Listening Project conversation you only need the basics of play:  A willingness to imagine and pretend, make mistakes, and be surprised.

In this fast-paced 3-Hour Zoom Workshop You Will:

  • Witness yours’ and others’ persistent conversational habits. 
  • Develop the beginning of a skill to suspend these habits and discover the commitment, concern, and passion hidden in a speaker’s communication.
  • Experience the world of someone else and practice responding from that understanding.  
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“Since taking the Listening Workshop in 2013, the skills that I learned are constantly in the back of my mind as I engage in personal and professional relationships. I work with high school and college students, and as they work through the complicated decisions that come with the high school to college transition, all they want is to feel that they are being genuinely, fully heard. As a result of the Workshop, I’m more conscious of how I word follow-up questions (am I reflecting back what the students said, or am I trying to insert my own opinions?), and I can feel students responding more openly and thoughtfully to me. This in turn helps me take a student-centered approach to addressing each individual’s challenges. (Not to mention how much more fulfilling my personal relationships feel when I listen closely!) I only wish everyone who works with youth could take this training.”

Isha T.
Washington, D.C.

“Sue Cosentini’s Listening Workshop was a powerful experience for our campus and community. This hands-on participatory workshop builds skills for effective listening in a variety of contexts, ranging from the workplace, to community meetings to personal relationships. Weeks after, students, faculty and community members who participated continue to tell me that they are using the skills they learned, and that they are communicating in more meaningful and effective ways.”

Neil Leary
Director, Center for Sustainability Education

“I took this workshop from Coz in Littleton, Ma. last month. It is a life-changing experience and well worth the venture.”

Barbara Cornwall
Littleton, Ma

“I know I’ve told you this before but doesn’t hurt to hear it again. You impacted my entire life and I still think about you and what I learned from you and that class. I pass along the knowledge to all of the PT students I have as well. So grateful for you! You and your work impacted me more than any other professor I had and I was with them for years. That’s pretty incredible!”

Meaghan

“Love Your Neighbor Project’s Be A Good Neighbor: The Listening Project with Sue Cosentini was a great experience. I find myself listening or actually visualizing conversations as movies – so interesting to stop and see/listen rather than waiting my turn to speak.”

Ann

“Thank you so much for this wonderful event! Sue is amazing!”

Kelly L.

“Sue brought to life exactly what I needed to learn – how to listen! The concepts shared are so simple and tangible yet have had a profound impact on how I engage with others. Quieting myself to make room for another allows me to immerse myself in someone else’s experience. There’s no better way to truly form connections!”

Jaime Teich

“Wish I could be there for your current workshops. I learned so much from the ones you facilitated 10+ years ago. They (you) helped me to be a more compassionate person. Because of you I understand that a conversation isn’t about being right, but literally about understanding, even when we disagree. I include your workshops on my resume to this day, because they were so valuable to me.”

Sue

“Thank you so much! This is exactly what I need. I would love to take this class again with you to witness this in action, practice and hear the feedback. Most valuable to me is creating this picture, envisioning and immersing myself visually into the other person’s story (experience, facts, feelings) in context, to pretend to be the other person, as a way to deeply listen to them. Much appreciated!”

Angela

“In The Power of Listening workshop I volunteered to be the speaker during the closing demonstration. Susan listened to me while I spoke about various issues in my life in front of the whole group. It sounds a bit crazy, but those 10 minutes in which it appeared Susan was simply listening to me were actually far from ordinary. It defies rational explanation, but Susan’s listening technique was absolutely life-changing. Being truly heard gave me clarity and freedom — and best of all it gave me my son back!”

Emily Adams

“Thanks for the listening workshop. I found it really useful tonight. My family is hosting a visitor who’s had several major life issues arise recently, and we sat down and talked about them tonight. The skills that I learned at the listening workshop made it possible for us to have a rewarding conversation where we learned more about each others’ perspectives and developed ideas to resolves some of her challenges. She told me that she didn’t feel comfortable talking with others about these issues because she felt like nobody else would respect and listen to her. I’m grateful that she trusted me, and I would like to thank you for your role in making this conversation so successful.”

Nina

“Extraordinarily powerful, fun and effective Listening Workshop in Spencer yesterday! Thank you for inviting me.”

Deb Bliss and Spencer

“Sue brought to life exactly what I needed to learn – how to listen! The concepts shared are so simple and tangible yet have had a profound impact on how I engage with others. Quieting myself to make room for another allows me to immerse myself in someone else’s experience. There’s no better way to truly form connections!”

Jaime Teich