Online course,
Spring/Summer 2024
Mondays and Wednesdays,
4 - 6pm Eastern Time
May 6 - July 3, 2024
Application deadline: Closing soon
If you’re interested in thoughtful listening, integrating arts and humanities into medicine, and helping the healthcare community, you can become a Certified Listener Poet.
Applications for the Spring/Summer Cohort are closing soon. Please apply if you would like to join this upcoming cohort!
Schedule your interview
After you submit your application, you will be asked to schedule an interview. Please use this button to find a time to meet with us.
Join an info session
If you would like to learn more about this course, please join us for an upcoming information session.
Meet one-on-one with an intructor
If you have specific questions about the course or any of our programs, please feel free to find a time to meet one-on-one with an instructor.
About This Course
Good listening can be life-changing in the healthcare industry. The techniques we teach our Listener Poets enable people to open up, reflect on their experiences, and feel the healing power of being heard.
With explanation of the best practices we’ve developed, stories of specific interactions we’ve learned from, and plenty of guided exercises and live feedback, the Certified Listener Poet program will bring you deep into the art of good listening.
You’ll be applying for an in-depth eight-week online course with a certification opportunity at the end. You’ll have 32 total hours of virtual class time (two hours of class twice per week) with a group of 6-10 colleagues, and an Independent Practicum where you will coordinate 6 Listener Poet sessions.
Please click through the questions below to learn more.
Additional Course Details
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Create a psychologically safe space and build trust quickly
Understand the effects of burnout and support resilience
Use silence to advance a conversation
Be present (and make it clear that you are)
Reflect back so a person feels heard
Synthesize what you hear in a meaningful way
Craft a meaningful poem inspired by your listening
Be a sought-after conversation partner
Maintain lasting connections with your community of service
Make people feel heard and seen
Making people feel seen and heard helps them feel more fully human. The ripple effect from that impact extends well beyond the individual.
Build trust quickly
Listening is a powerful tool for making the most of limited time for building connections. If you’re a good listener, people will share their truths with you sooner.
Help fight burnout
Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers are burning out at an alarming rate. More than being just clinicians, administrators, and support staff, of course, healthcare workers are humans. They are nourished by spaces to share their stories, reflect, and make meaning. As a good listener, you’ll be helping them stay in the healing careers they chose to serve.
See the healthcare world (and the humans in it)
Get ready to really see the human side of healthcare. As a Listener Poet, you’ll learn more about how people feel, how they think, and what they’re going through than you could ever understand from a textbook or classroom.
Improve patient experience
Patients and family members are more likely to mention a symptom or environmental factor or concern if they believe they’re going to be heard. They’re consequently less anxious, which can make them more receptive to care advice.
Reduce errors
By contributing to a culture of good listening, you can help reduce medical errors. Clinicians who listen better not only hear more of what’s said, they also make patients feel more comfortable sharing more.
Improve writing skills
Writing for others is a deliberate craft. Producing a poem that someone finds meaning in, resonates with, even cherishes, requires skill and care. Practice and dedication are the best teachers, but we’ll cover methods that will guide you towards reliably respectable writing.
Gain transferable skills
Every field, every career, every area of life can benefit from good listening. Besides increasing your performance at work, you can be confident that improving your listening skills will improve the health of your personal relationships.
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We love connecting with passionate individuals who are drawn to this program and mission. An applicant to this course:
Wants to be a good listener
Wants to expand emotional intelligence and cultural humility
Is able to recognize, understand, and manage emotions
Is able and willing to hold space for people sharing about difficult and potentially triggering topics such as death, grief, and racial injustice
Loves poetry and storytelling
Has strong written and verbal communication skills (English, with a preference for speaking a second language, too)
Has an interest in supporting our mission to cultivate resilience and wellbeing
Is adaptable, willing to experiment, and self-directed
Has reliable Internet with video and audio capabilities
Has approximately 4 hours per week availability for 8 weeks
Each cohort so far has been an incredible group of listeners, writers, healing arts practitioners, nurses, physicians, veterans, family caregivers, teachers, community organizers, and very open-hearted people.
If you’re interested in this kind of community, we would love to meet you.
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The next cohort will begin on Monday, May 6th, 2024. Class times are 4-6pm Eastern Standard Time.
Week 1 - May 6 & 8
Week 2 - May 13 & 15
Week 3 - May 20 & 22
Mid-Term Break
Week 4 - June 3 & 5
Week 5 - June 10 & 12
Week 6 - June 17 & 19
Week 7 - June 24 & 26
Week 8 - July 1 & 3
Independent Practicum - July 4 through August 6
Certification celebration - Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Upcoming cohorts:
Fall 2024
Mondays & Wednesdays, 4-6pm Eastern
September 9 - November 6
Certification celebration - December 11
Winter 2025
Mondays & Wednesdays, 4-6pm Eastern
January 27 - March 19
Certification celebration - April 16
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The Certified Listener Poet tuition may be self-funded, or funded by your employer or institution. All tuition from this course supports the nonprofit work of The Good Listening Project.
We offer a sliding scale to make the course as accessible as possible for all, while also sustaining the work of our small nonprofit. We're happy to customize payment plans as needed.
$4,100 Supporter rate (You’ll help sponsor an additional student.)
$3,100 Standard rate (This covers our costs for delivering the course.)
$1,750 Scholarship rate (We draw on other resources from our community to support you and prioritize awarding scholarships for people in low-income situations and historically underrepresented communities.)
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Certification requirements include: 1) attending 32 hours of class time and/or equivalent make-up work, and 2) completing 15 hours of the Independent Practicum component, during which students will coordinate their own Listener Poet sessions.
Students who attain their certification will be offered the chance to become members of the Certified Listener Poet Alumni Society and Community of Practice. Members are eligible to continue receiving support throughout the year with regular meetings and mentoring.
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Students with an undergraduate degree are eligible to receive three graduate-level academic credits through the Wilson College Arts & Humanities program. Students who wish to receive these credits will pay an additional $500 on top of the regular tuition and will receive a letter grade.
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There are several options after you complete your certification in terms of how you want to continue practicing and working with us.
We have an ongoing Community of Practice that meets twice a month where you can learn about how others are integrating this work into their communities, as well as continue deepening your Listener Poet skills.
We are very interested in collaborating and working together to grow the reach of our work, so this is something we can figure out together if you would like to make Listener Poet sessions available to a specific community.
You are welcome to apply to become a contracted Listener Poet with The Good Listening Project. We've hired 3 of our grads so far. If you do that, you'll work on projects with clients that we've already secured and built relationships with.
After you graduate, you're most welcome to list that you're a Certified Listener Poet through The Good Listening Project on your website or anywhere else.
Keep in mind that we define health care very broadly, so if you were doing this in a healing context of some sort we'd be happy to collaborate and work together on this!
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Refunds will be considered for requests received at least fourteen days before the course start date. Cancellation and refund requests received after the cancellation deadline will be considered in the case of unforeseen emergency situations.
We reserve the right to retain an amount that covers the cost of fees incurred related to payment transactions, refunds, and/or credit card chargebacks.
After the course begins, refunds are not available. However, you may have the opportunity to participate in a future cohort.
If you have more specific questions about the course, please feel free to find a time to meet with us here, or contact us using the form at the bottom of this page.
Meet Your Instructors
Explore Our Work as Listener Poets
View Our Poems
CLP Instructor
Guest Instructors
What Alumni Say
“This is the best writing group I’ve ever been a part of. The authenticity. People. Creativity. Talent. Structure. Organization. The potential it has for growth and personal development. I’m incredibly glad I made this investment in myself.”
“This was much more than educational. This was like a poetry workshop, meditation, therapy session, and roller coaster ride all in one. Unforgettable.”
Meet the
Certified Listener Poet Alumni
Visit the CLP Alumni profiles to view our growing community and see who has taken this course and what they’re doing now.
Certified Listener Poet Map
See where our Certified Listener Poets are from!
Why We Listen
As Listener Poets, we offer the gift of witnessing and making meaning. Our nonjudgmental, empathetic listening validates difficult emotions, which can help people process their experiences and complete what psychologists call the “stress response cycle.”
The Good Listening Project was founded to cultivate resilience and wellbeing for hospital staff, medical students, patients, and their supportive communities. Through our Certified Listener Poet program, you will help build cultures of good listening by talking with these individuals and writing custom poems that nurture the humanity within the healthcare system.
If you’re interested in this program, please apply.
Connect with us
If you have questions or would like to learn more about the Certified Listener Poet course, you can find a time to meet with us here or use the form to send us a message.
We would love to hear about what draws you to this program and why you’d like to become a Listener Poet.