Listeners
I have been on and off this site for over a year, reading and interacting with the forums that I feel would help me out some. I'm a 51 year old that has been working at an un-fulling job for way too long and go through regular bouts of burn out and depression that I tuck away in the deepest darkest part of my brain because "suck it up and drive on" was what was instilled in me at a young age. In this time of changing the whole mental health stigma, I thought I would give this site a try. I mostly come here when things aren't so good and tend to take a lot of time away from the site when things are going well. I have been contemplating using a listener for some time, but am not sure how that works. Do I just search listeners and find one that I feel would meet my needs? How often does one interact with their listener? Is there a place on the website that answers these questions? If so I haven't been able to navigate to find it. Thanks for any information.
Hi @CyclingThroughLife, it's good to see you again!
Sometimes in order to learn something better for ourselves, we need to unlearn a lot of things, we're previously conditioned for. Super proud of you for acknowledging the same and trying to reach out for support, that you do deserve. 💛
You can browse for listeners here: https://www.7cups.com/BrowseListeners/ using various filters too, as necessary!
Conversely you can seek a listener using "connect now" button on your dashboard, or via Noni~ sending request here would show that request (with your topics- upto three, I think, and some writing space for anything else you're looking for) to all available listeners in their general request queue and they can take it up!
You can have more than one listeners also, in case the previous one you talked to isn't available or you need some immediate support, a different perspective, or just want to talk to someone else as well.
There's no mandate on how often you need to connect with the listeners, whatever that works for you/ your need/ comfort/ availability at the time~ you can either do a one-off chat with any listener, or agree upon a regular/ recurring/ long term support system, where y'all could either talk via offline texts back and forth or scheduling prior live chats!
This one's a good place to ask/ seek insight for similar questions! https://www.7cups.com/forum/siteupdates/HsHangout_1970/7CupsNewbiesQnAThread_291326/. Feel free to ask, if anything! 😊