Compassionate Listening with Dianne Edleman, PhD 

Compassionate listening is a service I offer to adult women of any age who need a safe place to talk about sensitive subjects. Things that, for any number of reasons, you choose not to discuss with family, colleagues, or even close friends. 

Why trust me with such confidential matters?
I have been a spiritual director since 2011. A life coach for much longer. A hospital chaplain during the Covid 19 pandemic. A Red Cross Disaster Spiritual Care worker and a hospice worker. Confidentiality is intrinsic to my practices.

A unique discipline.
Compassionate listening utilizes many of the skills associated with spiritual direction, life coaching, chaplaincy, and the like. It is, however, its own discipline. It isn’t about solving your problems or giving advice. It isn't psychotherapy. There are no goals, no structured processes, no next steps.

It is a practice of providing you with sanctuary: a calm, non-judgmental, empathetic space in which you can safely give voice to whatever is on your mind or weighing heavily on your heart. You just bring you, wherever you are, however you are.  

What kinds of issues do I particularly resonate with?
There are many. Here are a few:

• If you are a caretaker, you may be struggling with both physical exhaustion and compassion fatigue. With whom do you share that? I know what it feels like. I’ve been a caretaker for a loved one myself. People who haven’t rarely have any real idea of what it's like.

• If you need to talk about a difficult situation at work, whom can you trust there? My first career was in a very competitive environment within the corporate world. Confiding in others there can be risky.

• Are you grieving the death of a loved one? You may have discovered that even people who love you dearly don’t want to hear about your loss as often as you need to talk about it. Again, I’ve been through that, and have walked with many others who have, as well.

• If you’ve been diagnosed with a serious or terminal illness, you may not want to burden your loved ones with what is actually going through your mind much of the time. As a hospital chaplain and hospice worker, I have accompanied hundreds of people with the same concern.

What good does it do to unburden yourself?
For many people, it’s like releasing steam from a pressure cooker. Stress can build up over time. If you don’t have someone you can speak with candidly, keeping things bottled up inside can take a toll on you. Mentally and physically. 

For others, talking to a qualified practitioner is a way to avoid stressing others or keep unwanted opinions, suggestions, or judgments at bay.

Give it a try with no obligation.
Let’s have a first conversation at no charge. We can talk for about half an hour. You can tell me what’s going on, get a sense of how you comfortable you feel with me. If you want to book an appointment after that, we’ll schedule a mutually good time to meet again. 

Cost.
I work on a sliding scale of $90 to $125 an hour. I ask that we meet by video call. If you have an iPhone, we can do FaceTime calls. If not, we can do either Google Meet or Zoom.

If compassionate listening is something you could really use about now, please reach out to me using the form to the left. Again, there’s no obligation for a first brief chat.

I look forward to hearing from you.

D.E.