Dawn Godman on Listening

What I really learned during that process is that for the first time I really saw that there are some serious mental health issues in this prison, and I had to struggle really hard to figure out how I was going to deal with those situations when they came up because I had it sitting right in front of me. And so when I was able to recognize that this person really, you know, 30 years ago would have been in a mental hospital somewhere, not in a prison. How was I going to deal with that? How was I going to facilitate the process so that this person could be an active part of the mediation process? And when it came down to it, just, um, just convening with her, just listening to the things that she had to say. I ended up spending 3 hours convening with her one night, and for— it was an experience for her where it was the first time in her entire life that she'd ever had anybody take the time to hear her. And listen to her and show compassion and be able to show her that I wanted to hear her story and what she had to say. And that was a life-altering experience for her. And for me.