This panel of four practitioners of deep listening will explore the skills used in, as well as the impact of, deep listening. They will pull from Buddhist teachers and Carl Rogers, as well as personal experience as they share tools of how to listen generously, with curiosity and without judgment.

Alice Holstein is an ex-organization development consultant with a 25 year career that was interrupted by severe suffering from bipolar mood disorder. This led to a new life as a Peer Support Specialist with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Mental health clinic plus numerous public speaking engagements and various publications on “Tough Grace: Mental Illness As a Spiritual Path.” She is currently an author of local opinion editorials as well as being a Spiritual Companioning practitioner. Ron Malzer has belonged to UU La Crosse since 1993. His career involved being a psychotherapist and family medicine educator. He wants you to know that he is not offering himself as a someone who gets to deep listening easily. he adds: “I’m someone who benefits when I get there.” Jackie Yaeger is a Hospice and Palliative Care Physician currently living and working in Madison Wisconsin for Agrace Hospice Care. Cindy Ericksen is the mother of 3 adult children and the grandmother of 2 little girls. She has been a member of the congregation since 2001. She is a psychotherapist in a private practice she calls HeartJourney. She struggles to listen as deeply and generously to her family as she does her clients.