Transform Care Through Listening and Poetry
A simple yet profound practice that honors voices, strengthens connections, and fosters healing. Listener Poets create space for reflection, empathy, and shared humanity through poetry.
Ways to Offer Listener Poet Sessions
Bring the Listener Poet Experience to Your Organization
Bring our blend of deep listening and poetry to support the wellbeing of your staff, patients, and community members.
Gift a Listener Poet Session
Give a unique experience to a friend, family member, or colleague – or try it for yourself.
Poetry and Listening at Work in Healthcare
Selected Collaborations
“Amplifying Voices” Project Highlights
12 Listener Poet sessions with Black women physicians in Obstetrics and Gynecology residency programs
Conversations are transformed into poems and origin stories, and gifted to each participant.
A 70-page anthology created as a resource for the community
“Our Why” Project Highlights
125 Listener Poet sessions with the American Cancer Society’s Patient Support Team, each reflecting on “my why”
Conversations are transformed into poems and origin stories, and gifted to each participant.
24 Brave Conversations, small-group sessions where colleagues share poems and reflect together
A 308-page curated anthology preserving voices and reflections on their journeys throughout care work
What are Listener Poets?
The Good Listening Project partners with healthcare organizations to reduce burnout, support emotional well-being, and cultivate empathy – one poem at a time.
At the heart of our work are Listener Poets, trained in deep listening and poetic reflection. In 20-minute one-on-one sessions, they invite healthcare staff, students, patients, and caregivers to share what’s on their minds. After each conversation, the Listener Poet creates a custom poem – a creative, compassionate reflection of the speaker’s voice and experience.
“I really appreciated your deep heartfelt listening. I rarely feel that heard. The poem is such a vivid reminder of that interaction.”
How We Support Healthcare Teams, Patients, and Caregivers
Programs are offered both in-person and remotely, and are thoughtfully designed for healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and caregivers.
One-on-One Listening Session
A dedicated space to reflect and feel heard.
Personalized Poem & Origin Story
A unique poem inspired by your conversation, paired with a brief “origin story” that gives context to what was shared – honoring your voice as a meaningful gift and keepsake.
Brave Conversations
Small-group sessions where colleagues share poems and reflect together, fostering connection and trust.
Community Anthology
Each participant’s poem is added – anonymously and with permission – to a growing anthology that honors the collective voice of your organization.
Why It Matters
✔️ Reduces stress and emotional fatigue
Listener Poet sessions offer a moment of pause – a chance to feel heard and validated. This can ease the emotional toll of care work and help participants return to their roles with renewed clarity and calm.
✔️ Builds team connection and psychological safety
Brave Conversations foster trust, openness, and shared understanding among colleagues. By hearing each other’s stories through poetry, teams grow stronger, more empathetic, and better equipped to support one another.
✔️ Creates space for reflection, empathy, and healing
Our process encourages people to slow down, reflect on their experiences, and feel the power of being truly seen and understood – helping to process complex emotions and experiences often left unspoken in healthcare.
✔️ Offers creative resonance that complements healing
Each personalized poem captures something essential – a moment, a feeling, a truth – and reflects it back through the lens of art. This creative resonance offers more than comfort; it deepens insight and affirms meaning, supporting both emotional and spiritual healing.
✔️ Supports a more humanized healthcare culture
By centering compassion, creativity, and deep listening, Listener Poet programs help shift organizational culture toward one that values the whole person – not just as professionals, but as humans.
✔️ Leaves a lasting legacy
The poem is not only a keepsake, but a work of art – a reflection of the participant’s voice, values, and story. Many describe it as a personal legacy: a reminder of purpose, and a testament to their humanity within the work they do.
A Glimpse Into the Process
A quick look inside a Listener Poet session – from heartfelt conversation to personalized poem.
Connect with Us
If you’d like to support good listening in your healthcare community, we would love to hear from you.