Other people four

This week if you need to quickly build your connections with others you could try doing a listening swap. If, for example, you’re about to go on strike for three weeks you might want to remember what it feels like for someone to ask you what’s on your mind and genuinely listen to the answer.

Much of trade union organising is upheld by our education model, founded on the work of some beardy blokes including Paulo Freire who developed a model of emancipatory pedagogy, one which brings into the everyday the act of raising our consciousness and collective problem solving. The model I use to build the mental health of health workers and activists I call survival surgeries that make use of the emancipatory ideas of another beardy bloke Sigmund Freud about the power of being heard by another human. Survival Surgeries follow three core steps: establish what the real problems are by saying what is really on your mind, understand them and plan collectively.

So if you find yourself on a picket line or a demo this week try out a listening swap.

Activity 1: Listening swap

Find another human being to talk to. One of you will be the speaker and will talk for five minutes about what is on your mind. The listener should just listen – no prompting, questions or normalising, just listening. After five minutes swap roles. If you can just say what’s on your mind, but if you’re finding it difficult to start use an open question such as ‘What is the real issue you’re facing at work today?' 

Depending on the size of the group you’re in, you can report back what came up in the Listening Swap and write this down on a flip chart or on email/cards so that your group can make use of the issues that came up. In trade union education, whatever comes up in the listening swap becomes the focus of discussions and collective planning. It is in this simple way that the real problems of work become the focus of what we do next.

To download your copy of Survival Surgeries click HERE 

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UberTherapy: The Business of Mental Health October 2025 Bristol University Press. Pre-order here.