Celebrating 20 Years of Listening

 

Salisbury’s own ‘Listening Place’ celebrated 20 years of listening to the local community on Tuesday 10^th September with a cake and an interesting talk given by Caroline Cavanagh, Anxiety Specialist, titled ‘Anxiety is a Gift’.

Sue Robbins, Manager of The Listening Place welcomed the packed audience, which included Listeners, both past and present.  She recalled the struggle to get the whole enterprise off the ground and how determined the Founders of The Listening Place were to realise their vision of a free, accessible service where people from the local community could be listened to without interruption or judgement.

The Rev Canon Ann Long, one of the original Listeners, described how she followed in the footsteps of the late Julia Waters who was inspired to establish The Listening Place. She said it had been a privilege to work alongside those Listening and being Listened to.  Sue thanked Ann and also presented Mary Mitchell, who was retiring after 20 years of service, with a gift and flowers, in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to The Listening Place.

Caroline Cavanagh, who donated her talk in memory of her father, followed with a lively and challenging talk, ‘Anxiety is a Gift’.  She gave the audience three key ways to transform anxiety (or fear) into positive energy in our own lives.  Firstly, by considering whether the risk is real or imaginary.  Secondly by taking small steps out of our comfort zone to challenge the perceived risk and thirdly by ‘flipping’ negative thoughts into positive ones.  Most ‘what if?’ thoughts are negative and it’s easy to fall down the negative ‘rabbit hole’ and become anxious.  Given practice, anxiety could be seen as a gift, by using it to train our minds to think positively.  Many questions were posed by the audience in response and Caroline engaged in a discussion of the points raised.  As a ‘thank you’ for being the speaker, Caroline was presented with a basket of Fairtrade goods by Sue Robbins.

The evening ended with the cutting of the Anniversary cake, light refreshments and an opportunity to chat with Caroline and each other.

 

The Listening Place is based at Salisbury Methodist Church in St Edmunds Church St, Salisbury SP1 1EF.  It provides a free confidential drop-in service on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, 10am – 12noon and Monday evenings 5.30pm – 7.30pm.  Alternatively, appointments can be made by phoning 01722 325 294 within these hours, or by leaving a message on the answer phone.  Or by emailing: salisburylisteningplace@gmail.com

For further information: www.thelisteningplace.org.uk

 

Caroline Cavanagh, Anxiety Specialist helps people to understand anxiety and to use this knowledge to increase mental resilience and performance.

Caroline is a Professional Speaker, Published Author, National Award-Winning Therapist, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Master NLP Practitioner.

Above all she’s a lady who loves to help people feel mentally stronger.

For more information: www.carolinecavanagh.co.uk

 

The 20^th Anniversary Cake

 

 

The Rev’d Canon Ann Long

The Rev’d Dr Mark Cheetham, Superintendent Minister, Salisbury Methodist Church with Sue Robbins, Manager of The Listening Place, Caroline Cavanagh, Anxiety Specialist and The Rev’d Canon Ann Long, Founder Member of The Listening Place.

 

Sue Robbins, Manager of The Listening Place presenting a basket of Fairtrade goods to Caroline Cavanagh, Guest Speaker

 

Sue Robbins, Manager of The Listening Place with Mary Mitchell, retiring Listener after 20

A course to improve and practice

your skill at listening to other people

 

at Bemerton Methodist Church,

Roman Road, Salisbury SP2 9BHs

 

on Saturday, 21^st September, 2024,

from 10am to 4pm.

 

Course fee: £20      Please bring your own lunch

 

If, after attending this day, you want to develop your listening skills, there will be three further Saturday courses:

 

19^th October – Extended listening through mirroring

26^th October – Experiences in listening

2^nd November – Being a listener for the Listening Place

 

There is no fee for these courses

All will be held at Bemerton Methodist Church except the last course which will be held at Salisbury Methodist Church.

 

To book a place on the course:

 

telephone: 01722 325 294

or email: salisburylisteningplace@gmail.com

The Listening Place Christmas Tree was displayed at the Christmas Tree Festival 2023 at St Thomas’s Church and afterwards in the foyer of Salisbury Methodist Church.  Apart from generating a great deal of interest and publicity for The Listening Place, the event itself was a resounding success again.  12,000 visitors from the local area, different parts of the country and visitors from as far away as America and Australia helped to raise a massive £20,000 for local charities. We felt privileged and proud to be part of this annual event and hope to do so again.  If you would like to help create new decorations for next year, the please contact to Sue Robbins, Manager of the Listening Place.

 

Some of the bespoke decorations, made by our Listeners this year:

 

 

 

 

Awareness Raising Market Stall

 

On Saturday 30^th September Listeners from The Listening Place manned a market stall to raise awareness of their work.  It was hailed ‘a great success’ by Publicity Officer, Jill Lakeman.  She said “We had a brilliant day.  Members of the public visited the stall and we were able to explain our service.  Some expressed interest in training to become Listeners and some people came up to say ‘thank you’ for the help they had received from The Listening Place.  That was particularly heartwarming.”

 

Established nearly 20 years ago, The Listening Place provides a friendly and safe place where people can share whatever is on their mind with a Trained Listener.  Listeners don’t interrupt, advise or judge but, by listening, can often help to find a way forward.  The service is completely free and confidential.  No notes are taken or kept and only first names are used.

 

‘Now, more than ever, people need our Listening service’, commented Sue Robbins, Manager of The Listening Place. ‘We are probably unique in Salisbury, as we provide walk-in, face-to-face sessions, where people can talk through their problems, worries or concerns’

The Listening Place is delighted to welcome the Salisbury Foodbank to Salisbury Methodist Church on Saturday mornings.  The Foodbank and The Listening Place are both open from 10am – 12noon.  The coffee bar is open too for people to stop and chat either informally or for ‘a listening’ while they collect groceries.  Over time we expect this to become a popular city centre venue for the Foodbank.