UWest is pleased to welcome Dr. Ali Chavoshian for a special guest lecture titled “The Art of Listening: Application in the Clinical Setting, Pastoral Counseling, Spiritual direction, and Chaplaincy.” This free lecture will be held remotely on Zoom on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 7:00 PM Pacific Time. No registration required.
Attend on Zoom:
Meeting ID: 937 1719 1224
Passcode: 521071
Lecture Description:
Psychotherapy, a process-oriented psychotherapy in particular, is a complex process, and listening is an integral and fundamental part of it. In a wide range of psychotherapy, because each carries a distinct approach to treatments and symptom reduction, it is difficult to suggest any fixed idea of listening. Nevertheless, we can think of some principles that can be utilized so that the content becomes more fluent and meaningful. Within the art of listening, the listener can contain one’s own anxiety and not acting upon it. In this way, the therapeutic relationship can be humanized.
In this lecture I will present the fundamental principles of the art of listening: listening to the dynamics of the transference and countertransference with less preoccupation with theories; listening to the clinical material in hand as well as developmental and socio-cultural issues with the experience of here and now; listening in neutrality which results in preventing biases; listening to trauma in its pre-anxiety and post-anxiety containment; and more importantly listening not in universality, but in singularity, and avoiding generalization.
Further I will discuss how we can apply the art of listening in pastoral counseling, spiritual direction, and chaplaincy. A sample case of vignette, demonstrating the art of listening, will be provided.
About Dr. Ali Chavoshian:
Ali Chavoshian, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and research psychoanalyst, practicing in Berkeley, California. He is a faculty member of the San Francisco Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis. Also, he is a clinical faculty member at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, serving as a clinical supervisor for graduate students. He has served as the Academic Dean and Professor in the Graduate School of Psychology at the New College of California in San Francisco since 1990, also as the teaching faculty at the Sonoma State University and the City College of San Francisco. He has been a visiting professor at the Guilan School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Rasht, Iran. His clinical research incudes the discussion of culture and society.