practice to expand connection with the wisdoms and wonderings of children
Listening to Children
New opportunity for deep, self-guided exploration and 1:1 support
There’s a call for us to slow down and listen, and practice how we listen.
How we listen to the sky, the waters, the beetles, and the trees. How we listen to each other. How we listen to our listening, especially our listening to children.
Many of us have beautiful ways we already listen to children as we support what they need, nurture what they know, and honor their dreams.
And…
we have yet to scratch the surface of the vastness of listening…
listening that travels beyond what we see, hear, and touch,
listening that connects without attachment to meaning,
listening that expands through trust and devotion.
We create a more beautiful world rich in the frequencies of children through our devoted attention and listening to children.
We practice listening to lissssssten.
Not in order to ___.
Process is outcome is all there is.
We listen to children because there is value in listening to children.
Listening as presence, as trust, as awe, as love.
Listening to Children is a place for us to practice how we listen to children, each other, and ourselves.
We’ll bring the mind and heart-mind together as we attune to children and
What we hear—words, sounds, silences, vibrations;
What we see—body movements, eyes, hands; where/what/how;
What’s between—the space around what we observe; empty, vast, relational, overlapping;
What’s beyond—multidimensional sensing; dream, memory, knowing, frequency, more…
We’ll also practice ways to:
Tell small stories of what we hear, see, sense (without summary or meaning-making)
Listen to stories (without comment or interpretation)
Listen to ourselves (with curiosity and compassion)
Our practice together will nourish and support you to:
Sense between, through, and beyond “observation”
Loosen control of your listening
Flow between listening to children and listening to yourself
Explore deeper states of wonder and not-knowing
Connect with/in fields of frequency
Feel playfulness, flexibility, and joy in listening
Deepen your presence in a moment
Experience new layers of connection with children
Find new questions of practice for yourself
Ways to practice together
Self-guided Exploration + 1:1 Support
For individuals (parents, educators, helpers, healers, leaders, and curious listeners)
Intentional layers of practice, including 8 audio-recorded listening practices, reflection questions for integration, invitations to try out in everyday life/work with children, and a 1:1 session for personalized support.
Private webpage (for ongoing, flexible access to all content for a year)
Sacred practice to expand our connection with the wisdoms and wonderings of children.
For individuals (parents, educators, helpers, healers, leaders, and curious listeners)
8 audio-recorded listening practices, reflection questions, everyday practice invitations, and additional resources
1:1 session for personalized support (scheduled by request via email)
Private webpage (for ongoing, flexible access to all content for a year)
Note: All sales are final and there are no refunds once a course has been purchased.
Site-based Community
Customized for your context and calendar
For groups of 3+ within an organization, community, or informal gathering
Online or in-person
Self-guided Exploration and 1:1 Support
This new opportunity for deep, self-guided practice is designed for individuals who:
Are curious about expanded ways of listening,
Long to connect more deeply with children in their lives,
Enjoy learning structures with self-guided flexibility,
Would like the support of a personalized 1:1 conversation to discuss their unique questions and nuances,
Appreciate the focus of a dedicated container with specific layers of practice,
Feel called to explore, unlearn, play, and try new modes of listening connection.
What’s included?
8 audio-recorded listening practices (15-25 minutes) for you to listen to in seated meditation or on a walk
Connected to each listening practice are:
Questions to support integration and reflection
Practice invitations to weave into your everyday life/work with children.
Big-picture questions to support reflection about mindsets and habits that often get in the way of expanded listening.
Resources (adult books, children’s books, websites, references) for further exploration and support.
1:1 session with me to explore questions and nuances unique to you, your child/ren, and context.
Private webpage (for ongoing, flexible access to all content for one year)
What to expect from the audio-recorded listening practices
Each listening practice is a listening experience for you in the moment as well as a practice to apply in your context during the week.
Your initial listening for each practice can take place while seated in a quiet space or while taking a walk outside. Having a notebook/pencil nearby is helpful, but not necessary. Because the practices are pre-recorded, you’ll be able to take the time you need, pausing if you’d like more space to feel something, care for yourself, or reflect on what you notice.
Each audio-recorded practice is between 10-20 minutes. You might want to take time to write in reflection after your initial listening experience or reflect in an ongoing (non-written) way as you integrate the practice in your life/work.
Each listening practice leads into an invitation to try out throughout your days alongside what you typically do. These everyday practices are designed to deepen your listening within your everyday life, opening how you listen, not adding more for you to do within your days.
What to expect from our 1:1 conversation
Our conversation will explore your personal ways of listening and applications of listening specific to your life/work contexts.
You’ll choose what you’d like to explore in our session. Maybe:
Reflect more deeply on resistances you notice within yourself when you try to let go, loosen control, unknow, or expand from how you typically listen to children/others.
Receive support regarding a specific child in your life and discuss how you might shift your listening to better understand, allow space for, and connect with the inner light and wisdom of the child.
Wonder together about applications of multidimensional listening specific to your work context and how you might adapt what we’re practicing to your already rich practices of research, teaching, other.
Ask questions personal to you and your context; ask for and receive the specific kind of feedback you need.
Sessions are one hour via zoom, scheduled at a time convenient for both of us; information about how to schedule will be shared with those who register.
Is there an Online Community of Practice?
I offered one Online Community of Practice (Feb-March) where we practiced listening to children together during live online sessions. After reflection, I decided to revise this design and remove the live Zoom sessions for group practice. Instead, I’ve pre-recorded a series of listening practices as audio files to allow each listener more spaciousness and care for their initial experience with the material. You’ll be able to take the time you need, pausing if you’d like more space to feel something, daydream, or reflect on what you notice. You may choose to listen while seated in a quiet place or while on a walk outside.
My hope is that this self-guided + 1:1 support option will allow more humans to explore and practice at their own pace and become the roots for the rich soils of a community who continues to practice listening in an ongoing way. At a later date, I hope to open another Online Community of Practice for those who have engaged with the initial practice material (self-guided content or site-based community).
Note: I continue to facilitate communities of practice for groups with 3 or more humans who wish to gather (online or local) over a period of time for collective exploration and reflection.
Structure
The self-guided exploration for Listening to Children is designed for engagement over the span of 8-10 weeks. It is easily possible to stretch this out to take more time with each practice. It’s also possible to move through the practices more quickly to get a general sense of them and then select which layers to revisit with more attention and care. You may schedule your 1:1 session at any point during your exploration.
If you register now, you’ll receive the layers of practice in an ongoing way. The first three layers by April 24. The next three by May 8. And the final two by May 22.
Layers of listening practice:
Practice 1: Connect from your heart
Practice 2: Observe a scene
Practice 3: Observe yourself, too
Practice 4: Loosen observation
Practice 5: Play between
Practice 6: Travel beyond
Practice 7: Focus + release
Practice 8: Allow connection
Investment
$111
If you prefer to pay via Venmo rather than credit card and/or if you’d like to split your payments into two installments, please email me with your request.
Note:
I’m including a 1:1 session as part of this self-guided option (at no additional cost) because there is deep value for me to connect with you as you practice expanded listening. Yes, our conversation is designed to support you. And… I want to be transparent and let you know that your sharing of how you experience the listening practices and how you apply this in your everyday life is also supportive to me as I find new ways to teach and share ways of holistic, multidimensional listening with others. This is new territory and much of this practice lives beyond the language we currently use. I consider this to be deeply collaborative work. We are pollinating new paradigms together as we stretch our ways of listening and talking about how we listen.
Sacred practice to expand our connection with the wisdoms and wonderings of children.
For individuals (parents, educators, helpers, healers, leaders, and curious listeners)
8 audio-recorded listening practices, reflection questions, everyday practice invitations, and additional resources
1:1 session for personalized support (scheduled by request via email)
Private webpage (for ongoing, flexible access to all content for a year)
Note: All sales are final and there are no refunds once a course has been purchased.
Q + A
-
Listening to Children is for those who wish to explore their listening. You might be a parent, educator, or caregiver who spends time with one child or many children. You might lead an organization that supports families or communities. You might be retired or working on the edges of systems related to children. You might long to connect with the creative child within yourself. You might be curious about new modes and realms of listening in general (whether listening to children or to trees or with the infinite more-than-human world). Anyone who is curious and open will be able to participate in meaningful ways.
-
So much of the attention required when caring for children keeps us at a distance from deep connection with them and what they know. We help and teach and guide and keep them safe. We listen in order to support and nudge and understand. It can feel “impractical” and “frivolous” to listen without observable reasons why, and it can feel challenging to loosen the logics our self-worth tied to the “results” of our “helping.” Yet it’s our listening without an agenda—listening that grows from trust and letting go—that expands our heartfield and opens us to deeper connection with children and ourselves. This takes practice, and practice within a community of other playful, curious humans learning to listen is a beautiful thing.
-
No. The material we’ll engage with as we practice listening to children can be real-time listening in an everyday context (e.g., kitchen, library, classroom, bus) or it can be listening to scenes of memory, glimpses of dream, connection with your inner-child, or something else. Physical proximity to children is not a requirement for how we’ll practice listening to children.
-
The only “requirement” for our practice together is an openness to explore and listen to your listening. Whether you rarely reflect on how you listen, or you’ve attuned to your practice of listening for decades, the content and process of Listening to Children will meet you where you are.
-
I encourage you to have a dedicated notebook to record your listenings (and reflections) throughout our practice together.
-
When we try to understand what we can’t see or touch it can feel complicated, abstract, or far away from our everyday realities. But we won’t be practicing in order to understand anything. We’ll practice listening as a way to deeply experience listening. This practice will support our 3D/physical/embodied connection to what often feels ephemeral, distant, or unreal. If this is new to you or it sounds strange, that’s fine. What we “think” about this isn’t important to our practice.
-
Yes, from inherent pollination… because any attention we bring to our listening will impact the whole of our lives and those around us, including the ways we already notice and listen to children. If your work includes processes of documentation and description of children, additional layers of perspective and modes of practice will only enhance your approach. The listening we’ll explore in Listening to Children is not separate from, or in opposition to, other kinds of listening; it stretches our capacity to listen in expanded, multidimensional ways.
-
If you’re interested in being part of a community of practice with this content where you get to talk with others about your experiences, I’m happy to design and facilitate a site-based community for you (along with 2 or more others). If you don’t know others who’d like to do this, I invite you to explore the self-guided content, have a 1:1 conversation with me, and then you’ll be invited to join an Online Community of Practice in the future (with other individuals who, like you, are looking for a community to discuss ways of expanded listening.
Do you have another question?
I have devoted attention to noticing and listening to children for over three decades and what I know for sure is this:
I will forever be learning how to listen to children.
I come to our work together as both a guide and a learner practicing alongside you.
