From Listening to Belonging: A New Chapter for Wellbeing at the Monastery

After five years, more than 1,400 free appointments and over five million words of listening, the Monastery’s Listening Service has come to a close.

A Space to Be Heard

Since its launch in 2021, the service has provided a safe, welcoming space where people could talk openly about the challenges they were facing, knowing they would be met with compassion, dignity and understanding. Over the years, our dedicated volunteers listened to stories of grief, loneliness, confusion, overwhelm, hope and healing, offering something simple yet deeply important: the opportunity to be heard.

Again and again, we saw how being listened to without judgement could help people feel valued, connected and less alone. Beneath many different stories lay the same human need: to feel seen, heard and understood.

A Time to Evolve

The service also gave us a unique insight into the challenges many people in our communities are facing. As the years passed, it became increasingly clear that the demand for support was growing, and that the needs coming through our doors were often becoming more complex.

In many cases, people required specialist mental health support beyond the scope of a volunteer-led listening service. While we remained committed to offering a compassionate welcome, we recognised that the most responsible path forward was to evolve our approach and focus on the areas where we could make the greatest long-term impact.

Far from diminishing our commitment to wellbeing, this transition represents a new chapter.

What We Learned

One of the most important lessons we learned is that listening, while powerful, is often just the beginning. Many people are also seeking connection, belonging and practical ways to build resilience, self-understanding and supportive relationships in their everyday lives.

These insights are now helping to shape the next phase of wellbeing at the Monastery.

The Next Chapter

Working in collaboration with Mentell, a charity that supports mental wellbeing through facilitated peer-support circles, we will be training staff and volunteers in skills such as Listening Without Judgement and Nonviolent Communication. These approaches will help support the development of facilitated circles and group spaces within the Monastery community, creating opportunities for people to connect, share experiences and support one another in a safe and welcoming environment.

This work builds on the success of existing groups already meeting at the Monastery, including the weekly Men’s Circle facilitated by Mentell, as well as our growing range of wellbeing activities, community groups and events.

A Legacy That Lives On

Alongside this, wellbeing continues to flourish across the Monastery site. New practitioners are joining our wellbeing wing, community groups continue to grow, and initiatives such as Wellbeing Sundays bring people together for reflection, connection and support.

The spirit that inspired the Listening Service remains very much alive.

For five years, the service touched hundreds of lives and demonstrated the extraordinary power of compassionate attention. We are deeply grateful to every volunteer, practitioner and participant who helped shape this remarkable chapter.

Some seeds are meant to stay where they are planted. Others, once rooted, are ready to spread and grow in new places.

The Listening Service may have reached the end of its journey, but its legacy lives on through new ways of fostering connection, belonging and wellbeing at the Monastery and beyond.