CitySolicitor ACORN
What picture does the word “acorn” bring to your mind? No doubt the seed which amazingly grows into our national tree. But two years ago I discovered another acorn which has offered new challenges and helps to banish any risk of retirement boredom.
Past Master John Young, Liveryman
“ACORN” is the short title for the Acorn Christian Healing Foundation. Established in 1983, Acorn operates throughout the UK and in many countries overseas. It works for healing and reconciliation in the widest sense of those words. A central part of Acorn’s work in this country is to develop listening skills and this is how my friend, Elizabeth, and I became involved.
In the pressured society in which we live, there are ever more people who find it difficult to cope alone with the problems they face. Obvious situations are bereavement, redundancy or marital breakdown, but coping with teenagers or with a move of house can prove almost as traumatic. In many of these cases, the individual may need professional advice, perhaps from a qualified counsellor. However, there must be few of us without something on our mind which would benefit from a sympathetic listener whose training would enable us to sort out our thoughts and to reach our own conclusions. This is where the network of “Christian Listeners” trained by Acorn comes in. Many of them belong to the pastoral team in a parish. Typically, it is the clergy (of all denominations) and doctors who have found the value of being able to refer people to an Acorn listener— someone who will not offer advice but will listen to whatever a person wants to say, offering a non-judgemental ear and bound by strict confidence. Though sceptical at first, Elizabeth and I found that the process really does help to resolve even mundane problems which can otherwise so easily fester in our mind. And the process brought about a sea-change in the way in which we listen to others, even in everyday conversation.
Our training as Acorn listeners started with a “taster session” held in a nearby church. Six of us were sufficiently interested to go to the next stage—four weekly sessions making up a course called “Listening for Life”. Its declared object was to “increase awareness of listening so that we can listen
14 • City Solicitor • Issue 78
more effectively in any situation”, an object which most certainly was achieved. The moving spirit behind our course was Hazel Salmon, a truly remarkable 85 years-young retired priest. At the end of the course, Hazel said that there was of course no obligation, but that if we wanted to become qualified Acorn Christian
Listeners, we
should embark on the course called “Called to Listen”. Though available as a course of 12 weekly sessions, we adopted the option of going to the Acorn HQ in Hampshire for a residential week. Hazel warned us that the course could prove life-changing, and indeed it was.
It was not long before we were back again at the Acorn HQ, this time for an intensive 48 hours from which we emerged as qualified Acorn tutors; this means that we are now able to join other tutors in offering the Acorn courses (and at least two tutors are always involved). Our first experience of tutoring was with two groups of 12 put together by the churches in Wadhurst. Since then, we have tutored at a number of sessions elsewhere in Kent. It was immensely gratifying when a manager who came to a course in our village told us that it had brought about a complete change in the way that he dealt with the staff answerable to him.
An essential part of the Acorn training is to “listen to oneself” and so to become more aware of one’s own prejudices. And we were trained to listen to and understand a speaker’s body language and silences. Perhaps most striking for me was that I had to forget some of my training as a solicitor. The Acorn listener must allow the speaker to say as much or as little as the speaker wishes. Above all, the listener must not interrupt or put ideas into the speaker’s head. The whole idea is to help the speaker to clarify the issues and to come to his or her own conclusions. I would be delighted to hear from any reader who would like to learn more.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16