{"id":40281,"date":"2026-09-11T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/?p=40281"},"modified":"2026-09-07T20:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:23:22","slug":"at-moedes-i-aabne-dialoger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/at-moedes-i-aabne-dialoger\/","title":{"rendered":"To meet in open dialogues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"www_Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

It's Wednesday afternoon. A colleague and I have prepared to meet with a family in an Open Dialogue network meeting. We are working on a rehabilitation program for people with mental health problems.
\nWe work from a belief that people are created and developed in relationships and therefore seek to bring networks, family, and friends together in what are called open dialogic network conversations.<\/p>\n

Today we welcome a young person and his family. The atmosphere is a little tense. I feel my breathing and my heart, my body against the seat of the chair; I lean into the security of having a familiar colleague by my side.<\/p>\n

Open dialogue is an approach and a way of inviting people into a framework where \u2013 without an agenda and without solution orientation \u2013 one seeks to create space for listening and reflection on the words spoken.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging, non-judgmental reflections from those who are taking care of the meeting, in this case my colleague and me, are reflected back into the network, perhaps with gentle questions that can make the words and thoughts behind them unfold even more.<\/p>\n

The people we work with have histories of illness and many experiences of being treated and defined by others \u2013 often without having a voice that has been heard.<\/p>\n

My colleague and I are drawing up the framework for what we invite into: A space where being able to speak without being interrupted and being able to listen without having to respond are essential elements.<\/p>\n

At some point that Wednesday afternoon, the young man says something directly to his father. He says it clearly and distinctly; how he wants to be in the world with his challenges, and how he would like his father to accept it.
\nSomething happens between them; for a moment it is as if the room holds its breath; then something opens between the two; the father becomes visibly moved.
\nIt seems as if he suddenly hears and understands what his son is saying to him. And the room breathes a sigh of relief, so to speak.<\/p>\n

I feel a deep warmth spreading through my body.
\nIn our reflection, my colleague and I talk together while the family listens. We talk \u2013 both with emotion \u2013 about the courage it may have taken for the young person to say these things out loud \u2013 and the recognisable nature of being a parent and having to let go of old understandings. The conversation between parents and son then continued based on new, completely fresh understandings and perhaps with an experience of the importance of being heard and seen.<\/p>\n

In several ways, practicing Open Dialogue and having a meditative practice can be similar.
\nWe place ourselves in a framework, seek to make room for a slowness, seek to meet what arises with appreciative reflection. To experience that deeper listening can create space for inner voices that may have long been silenced.<\/p>\n

This is very simplified, and anyone who has sat on the cushion\/meditated will know that it is not that simple.
\nThis is also the case with \u00c5benDialog and network meetings.
\nThere is a lot of life lived, many often negative experiences and a great deal of strain on both the individual and the family who participate in our meetings.<\/p>\n

We seek to bring a kind of relaxation into the system. To have the courage of heart to endure when something is difficult and yet keep breathing and not rush anything.<\/p>\n

And perhaps this is where the meditative practice \u2013 for me \u2013 enriches the dialogical one:
\nThat the meditative training provides a kind of backbone that I can constantly lean on: attention to my body, my breath and heart while also paying attention outwardly to the vibrating space that I and we must take care of.<\/p>\n

This blog post is part of a series we call 'Practice and Professionalism'\u2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our inner practice rarely lives in isolation from the rest of our lives. It contributes to the way we listen, create, lead, teach, treat, or meet other people \u2013 sometimes even without us even realizing it.<\/p>\n

At Kontemplation's latest writing workshop, we invited the writers to explore the interaction between their inner practice and their professional or creative work. In order to give you who read the blog, examples of how mindfulness and heart training interact with working life.<\/p>\n

Where practice can sharpen the eye, open new perspectives or call for a different way of acting and creating.<\/p>\n

Here you can read one of the texts that was created when the workshop participants explored this very thing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Aaron Blanco Tejedor\/ UnSplash<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Det er onsdag eftermiddag. Jeg og en kollega har sammen gjort klar til at m\u00f8des med en familie i et \u00c5ben Dialog netv\u00e6rks-m\u00f8de. Vi arbejder p\u00e5 et rehabiliteringstilbud for mennesker…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":41477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[],"meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"person":[371],"class_list":["post-40281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faellesskabrelationer","person-lisser-diker"],"subtitle":"","embedded_audio":"","hasaudio":"0","hide_featured_image_on_post":"1","nobio":"0","infobox":"

Dette blogindl\u00e6g er en del af en serie vi kalder 'Praksis og faglighed'<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Vores indre praksis lever sj\u00e6ldent adskilt fra resten af livet. Den bidrager til den m\u00e5de, vi lytter, skaber, leder, underviser, behandler eller m\u00f8der andre mennesker p\u00e5 \u2013 af og til endda uden at vi selv l\u00e6gger m\u00e6rke til det.<\/p>\r\n

P\u00e5 Kontemplations seneste skriveworkshop inviterede vi skribenterne til at udforske samspillet mellem deres indre praksis og deres faglige eller kreative virke. For til jer som l\u00e6ser med p\u00e5 bloggen, at kunne give eksempler p\u00e5 hvordan n\u00e6rv\u00e6rs- og hjertetr\u00e6ning taler sammen med \u00a0arbejdsliv.<\/p>\r\n

Hvor praksis kan sk\u00e6rpe blikket, \u00e5bne nye perspektiver eller kalde p\u00e5 en anden m\u00e5de at handle og skabe p\u00e5.<\/p>\r\n

Her kan du l\u00e6se en af de tekster, der blev til, da workshoppens deltagere udforskede netop dette.<\/p>","quote":"","year_published":"2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40281"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41748,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281\/revisions\/41748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40281"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=40281"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format?post=40281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}