The beauty of Collaborative Divorce and the collection of voices in CDT was punctuated by May’s “Lunch and Learn” presentation on “Curious Listening” by Syd Sharples, MBA, LCSW (assisted by Kris Algert, Tasha Rock and Julie Quaid). The topic addressed revealed how collaborative practice continues to evolve and redefine itself, never resting on its laurels. “Curious Listening” is a concept and technique that grew from the recognition that sometimes it is not about the “orange”. In many cases, although identified goals and interests have been met, one party, or both, still will not (or cannot) commit to a final resolution. The Insight Approach to Conflict Resolution takes “active listening” to a higher plane by going beyond confirming that a practitioner “heard” what their client was saying by restating what was heard back to the client, and additionally inquiring further into the hopes and fears behind what the client said. Noticing conflict behaviors, understanding clients’ values and being curious and listening to understand differs from active listening because it is focused on ensuring that your interpretation of what the client said is accurate. The clients’ actions are often grounded in fear or in a perceived threat to a care/value. Once identified, the collaborative team can effectively move the parties along to a meaningful and satisfactory resolution.
CDT also has scheduled Jacinta Gallant to provide its members an in-depth training on understanding and best implementing “Curious Listening” into collaborative divorce cases as an Advanced Training on June 24-25, 2021. While this June training is full (if you are interested, contact Ronda Robinson to get on the waitlist) noting that waitlisted people will have first priority to attend the next Advanced training that CDT will be providing in September. More details and Registration for the September training will be available once the June training has been completed, and a link to same will then posted on the CDT website and provided for in future Newsletters and blast emails.
