Hoodline: Sidewalk 'Listening Teams' Lend An Ear To Promote Mental Health Awareness
At 11:30 this morning, teams of trained therapists and empathic listeners will appear on the streets of San Francisco to promote mental health. Instead of coaxing people onto a comfortable couch, these encounters will occur in the open air at nine locations, part of a community listening project that occurs each May to promote Mental Health Awareness Month.
Last year, psychotherapists Traci Ruble and Lily Sloane created Sidewalk Talk, "where we sit out on streets and listen to people about anything," said Ruble. Sloane has since departed to focus on her podcast, A Therapist Walks Into A Bar, but Ruble, who practices in San Francisco, continues to promote mental health street outreach.
"It originally started to de-stigmatize mental illness, but it's really grown to include non-therapists to bridge that empathic divide and bring human relating back in style," said Ruble.
"I have had so many clients in a sea of people walk into my office and tell me how lonely they are," she said. "They're depressed and anxious because they're not connected to anyone."