Traci Ruble, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, is the co-creator of Sidewalk Talk.
Sidewalk Talk fights stigma around therapy and mental health by bringing listening to the streets.
The idea is simple:
- A volunteer sets two chairs out on the sidewalk.
- They listen to anyone who wants to talk.
“I’m not in my therapist role when I’m out there listening. I show up as a human and I try to not think about all the different theoretical orientations and I don’t meet people with the idea that there’s something that needs to be fixed in them.“
The movement started in 2014. Traci was bewildered by the level of gun violence and she wanted to know: how can we be active in our community and actually listen to what’s going on, rather than interpreting and predicting it? How can we be part of the community?
The first Sidewalk Talk event took place in San Francisco in 2015 – now there is a Sidewalk Talk going on, somewhere in the world, every week.
An important aspect of the Sidewalk Talk dynamic is that the volunteers are not showing up as therapists – they’re not even showing up as helpers. They only show up in the role of a curious listener.
“I don’t think it’s a different experience than a therapy office. I think I experience it differently because I’m not in a therapy office. The context changes how I receive it.”
The one thing that Traci has to train the non-therapist volunteers to do is regulation, both inside of themselves and the person they’re listening to. Over sympathizing can burn out the volunteer and unbalance the person talking.
Sidewalk Talk is changing the world because it’s a disruptive social technology.
- When you see people listening in the street, whether or not you participate, your mindset changes.
- When someone listens to you, it encourages you to do the same.
- When you engage with your community, it’s stimulating and you want to do more.
Listening projects can also disrupt the intense political dichotomy in the U.S. The 2016 election shows that many people don’t feel they are being listened to, so Traci’s next step is Sidewalk Talk On The Road 2017.
“Human connection is always the solution. Solutions are not the solution.”
Volunteer to listen in your community at www.sidewalk-talk.org.
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