ABSTRACT
[To be a practitioner in conflict is not only to listen] but to receive their emotions, too. You not only have to give back their words but you also give back their emotions—the intention of what they are saying. If you can do that, then they feel that you can really understand them. [I show them that I understand] by changing the words […], sometimes it’s your body language but also by using different words, by showing that […] you understand the story behind the words. It is a big mistake [to assume that professionalism is to put away all the emotions]. The most important thing […] of the professional attitudes of people all over the world is [to not be] afraid of your own emotions. If you are not afraid of your emotions, for example anger, then you can listen very well to the emotion of the other person. Because, if […] someone is very angry or emotional, if you [as a professional] are afraid of your own emotions, then you can’t hear it. (transcript of a local practitioner working in the city of The Hague, spring 2009)
