Sidewalk Talk Community Listening Project Volunteer Shirt!

How Sidewalk Talk Started
In Fall of 2014 Psychotherapists Lily Sloane of Lily Sloane Therapyand Traci Ruble of Psyched in San Francisco joined forces because they shared a vision: to help heal that which divides us through the fine art of skilled listening on the streets of San Francisco.

On May 7th 2015, in for 2 hours in 12 locations throughout San Francisco Lily, Traci, and 28 other listeners set up chairs and signs, offering to listen to any passerby who wanted to be seen and heard if only for a few minutes.

We didn't know exactly what was going to happen when we set up our chairs and offered our listening ears. That's what was so exciting this project. We wanted to take this risk because we could feel a collective stir to evolve the way we interact around mental health, connection and community and we wanted to be part of it.





The result?

People took us up on the offer! And even those who didn't sit were visibly impacted (joyous, relieved, confused, anxious) by our presence. The mediagot interested and joined us with microphones and cameras. People from cities all around the country started asking us how they can make Sidewalk Talk happen in their communities. We had really landed on something.

Immediately after our first event we were contacted by Brooke Dooley producer of the film Listen who wanted to bring Sidewalk Talk to the streets of LA before the end of Mental Health Awareness Month. On May 26th, just a few weeks later, Sidewalk Talk LAwas born which grabbed the attention of the Los Angeles mayor's office and the LA Times.

Today?
Traci Ruble and the team at Psyched in San Franciscoare now producing Sidewalk Talk while Lily focuses her energies on her new podcast, "A Therapist Walks Into a Bar". Lily still listens from time to time and writes for Psyched Magazine. Sign up to become a Sidewalk Talk Volunteer here: SIDEWALK TALKor lead one in your own city.