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IDEAS THAT MATTER
LESSONS IN LISTENING
A BOOK CLUB
For parents and support staff seeking an alternative approach for children and adults with reputations for difficult behavior. Explore this relationship-based approach through the book Lessons In Listening by attending a series of 4 gatherings for a conversation in a small group about 14 lessons in listening.
June 22 & 29, July 6 & 13
7pm - 8:30 (or 9 if the conversation is pumping!) pm Eastern
RECEIVE THE BOOK FOR FREE.
Inclusion Press and Yeiter are pleased to make Lessons In Listening available for free at inclusion.com.
The challenge of "challenging behavior" is not the behavior. The challenge is to our understanding. Understanding comes from listening to and identifying with an individual over time in a variety of ways. By standing in that individual's shoes, we can begin to see a perspective or possible perspectives as to why the behavior makes sense or is logical. The book, Lessons in Listening, is offered as a guide to this process. This series of conversations about the lessons is one further way of enhancing and deepening our understanding with and for each other.
Lessons in Listening was written primarily for parents and direct support staff involved in the life of an individual with a disability who is at times difficult to support or has been labeled a “behavior problem”. However, the lessons also apply to children and adults without disabilities, so anyone is welcome to attend. The idea of holding this book club is to offer you an opportunity to discuss the concepts put forth in the book. It is also about learning to listen.
Margaret Wheatley in her book Turning to One Another notes:
“Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change. If we can sit together and talk about what is important to us, we begin to come alive.”
I'M YEITER.
I went off to college in 1966 and got heavily involved in the peace movement, make love not war. I was drafted but at the 11th hour got out on a technicality, a miracle really. I decided to do some form of alternative service and ended up in the Spring of 1971 as the only male staff person on the second shift in a building with 150 women with "mental retardation" and labels of severe behavior problems. It was then that my curiosity turned into a sense of calling or vocation. These people were bizarre and I am not talking about the residents with disabilities! People with disabilities often seemed to require special behavior programs, physical restraint and heavy doses of medications like Haldol and Thorazine - - WHY? Their life circumstances often did not make any sense and were horrible beyond belief. This theory of sorts was later confirmed in 1983 when I attended my first Social Role Valorization workshop and later that year met John McGee who invited me to spend time with him in his Gentle Teaching clinic in NE. Over the years I worked inside and outside of formal human services in a number of different roles from direct support to management to consultant and teacher. I was blessed to be invited to do a lot of work with families who had children labeled as "behavior problems" by the public schools.
"Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters! 50 years of listening to folks who have been labelled as challenging - PLUS 50 years of listening (and largely ignoring systems saying ‘you can’t do that’ have been synthesized into Lessons in Listening. Our culture needs to remember how to deeply listen. Join us for this opportunity to listen, learn, practice and engage with these important lessons and ideas."
Lynda Kahn & Jack Pearpoint, Inclusion Press
"Yeiter tells engaging stories and provocatively engages with a difficult topic that often stumps us. I finished the book feeling better prepared to lead with empathy and compassion."
Genia Stephen, Good Things In Life
IDEAS THAT MATTER
Lessons in Listening
A BOOK CLUB
Margaret Wheatley in her book Turning to One Another notes:
“Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change. If we can sit together and talk about what is important to us, we begin to come alive.”
REGISTER NOW
