In his book “The Road Less Travelled – A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth”, Dr Morgan Scott Peck states “True listening is love in action”.
We all carry our own personal history within ourselves. This history influences our actions, the choices we make, our place in society and the values we hold.
By inviting you to our listening service, we are inviting you to share a part of your history – this could be something that has happened recently, something that you are finding difficult to deal with or something you are struggling to carry within yourself. You don’t have to be alone in difficult times. It is okay to rely on others, share stories and experiences that you feel comfortable with sharing.

The feeling of being listened to by another person gives us so much more than it may seem. It helps us feel noticed and important, gives us the feeling of being seen and heard, the opportunity to understand the importance of our own history, experiences, and difficulties we have faced.

At PBIC’s Listening Service, we dedicate our time to listening to you. We meet individuals, so they can share their truths and needs, whilst telling us about their experiences of loneliness and difficult situations that they have found themselves in. We ensure the atmosphere during meetings is that of an open nature, with the guarantee of confidentiality, mutual respect, and an empathetic and understanding approach from our specialists. If you access our listening service, you will not be judged, advised, or instructed on how you should live your life. We also won’t give you “quick and easy” solutions to your problems.

The most important aspect of active listening is giving the person you are listening to space – both in terms of time and physical space. This is so important as it allows one to fully concentrate on themselves and think about what is troubling them in the current moment, what is hurting them and what stopping them from attaining happiness.

Our listening service support group runs every Monday at 11am @ PBIC’s office (90-92 Bromham Road, MK40 2QH). Anyone who wants to take part is welcome to do so. You don’t even have to let us know if you decide to come – feel free to simply come along and join us on a Monday morning.

The aim of our Listening Service Support Group is to help individuals that have experienced loneliness or isolation meet others in a friendly atmosphere. This gives people taking part the opportunity to share what is important & difficult in their lives. Additionally, we discuss different ways of relaxing and how to take care of your mental health and emotional wellbeing.

We often don’t realise how important it is to take care of this aspect of our lives. There is a huge amount of information on how to look after our physical health, how to eat well, the kinds of exercises that help us live our fullest lives and feel good in our bodies. However, there is still too little focus on how important mental and emotional health really is. Mental and emotional health impacts our physical health, and vice versa, so both should be taken care of equally.

So – if you feel you are under pressure, struggling to sleep, relax, or worried about something going on in your life or someone close to you – Please don’t hesitate to contact PBIC and request a meeting with our Listening service specialist. The meetings are free of charge, confidential and easy to access. We also offer over-the-phone meetings with our Listening Service Specialist. We currently offer 1:1 sessions in English and Polish. The Listening Service Support group is currently led in Polish – we are actively looking for volunteers to help out with leading our support groups in different languages e.g. Russian, Bulgarian, and Romanian.

Don’t live under pressure – allow yourself to feel relieved and take a step toward taking care of yourself! You are the closest person you have to yourself, and you deserve to feel well within yourself, every day!

Written by Iwona, PBIC’s Listening Specialist