What I Have Learned from Listening

After years of sitting with people in their most vulnerable moments, I have learned that expertise is less important than curiosity. The moment I think I know exactly what someone needs, I have stopped listening.

Every person who walks into my office brings a world I have never seen before. My role is not to fix that world, but to help them see it more clearly — and to believe that they have the capacity to shape it.

Listening is an active thing. It is not silence. It is attention directed outward, toward the particular way someone makes meaning of their life. When I listen well, I hear not just the words but the structure beneath them: the fears that repeat, the longings that surface in disguise, the small acts of resistance that hint at strength.

The people I work with teach me more than I teach them. They teach me about resilience, about the many forms courage can take, about what it means to keep going when the path is unclear. I am grateful for every conversation.