Ask almost any Seattle School student or alum about their first year, and Listening Lab is bound to come up. Required for students in both the counseling psychology and theology programs, Listening Lab is where students begin learning the art and skill of embodied listening: first to their own stories, then to the people around them. It’s also one of the most talked-about and often misunderstood parts of the Seattle School experience. Is it group therapy? What actually happens in the room? How should you prepare? We asked Dr. Monique Gadson, Listening Lab Director, to answer some of the most common questions about Listening Lab and why it’s at the heart of how The Seattle School forms therapists, theologians, and community helpers.
What is listening lab?
Listening Lab is an interdisciplinary class that teaches students how to become an embodied listener. The Seattle School believes the art and skill of listening is a crucial formational learning experience and is the bedrock of the programs offered. Therefore, all students are required to take Listening Lab as listening is fundamental to the disciplines of theology and psychology.
Is listening lab a form of group therapy? How does it differ?
Listening Lab IS NOT THERAPY for groups or individuals. It is a class where the tasks focus on developing theological and psychological frameworks and practicing the skills of specific competencies that are essential to becoming an embodied listener. Listening Lab is not group therapy because it does not focus on process work or clinical application. Students engage their personal stories from an intra-psychic perspective to understand how our own experiences contribute to our becoming an embodied listener.
What should a student expect from this class? Including format and content?
During the fall term, the focus is on students learning intra-psychic dynamics that interplay with listening. The winter term focuses on students expanding their learning and listening capabilities to interpersonal dynamics. Classes consist of a small number of students where individual attention and feedback is given as students learn to first listen to themselves before moving to the work of engaging in dialogue with others.
What are the desired outcomes from the class/goal of listening lab?
Students will begin developing a theological and psychological understanding about listening. Students will begin developing observational skills, developing psychological capacities, and learning skills that are foundational to becoming an embodied listener.
How can a new student prepare for listening lab–emotionally and practically?
Students can prepare for listening lab by acknowledging their personal stories will be stirred and at times activated. Students are encouraged to keep personal notes of strong reactions that can be processed during their time in psychotherapy.
Is there anything else that you’d like to share?
Listening Lab is the “signature sauce” of The Seattle School. There are very few programs that emphasize the Person of the Therapist and Theologian as it relates to the art and skill of listening. The Listening Lab is a part of the training arc in the counseling psychology program and the theology program. And we wholeheartedly believe that Embodied Listening IS a solution to becoming community helpers who promotes the flourishing of others.