A Legacy of Listening: How the Sanctuary Began
- Dr Jeannine Goh
- Nov 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 7
In every age, there are fractures that reveal the truth of a society.
Today, what exposes our fault lines are the long waiting lists, the antidepressant prescriptions, and the quiet despair of people who feel invisible.
We have built systems that measure, diagnose, and categorise, but not systems that listen with compassion. And yet, being listened to - truly heard and understood without judgement, is what people long for most. It is the first step of healing.
That is why The Sanctuary’s Listening Service was born. It has become a quiet revolution, carried not by power or profit, but by presence.
THE ALCHEMY
This was never just a project. It was an alchemy, forged from four elements that came together in Manchester.
First, there was Aidan Halligan, the Irish clinician and reformer who became one of the NHS’s fiercest advocates for compassion. Aidan believed systems could be transformed by listening, and not long before his sudden death in 2015, he said to Elaine Griffiths, CEO of The Monastery:
“If only there was a listening service, a narrative centre, where people could talk to someone who truly cared, so many spirals could be averted.”
That vision planted a seed.
The second was my own lived journey. As a young psychologist, I had seen a coldness in clinical systems and therapies that affected people I was close to. I saw labels that stole dignity and only touched the surface of a person’s experience.I became a passionate advocate of compassionate care.
Third, I encountered Internal Family Systems (IFS) Richard Schwartz’s compassionate map of the inner world. Instead of silencing troubling voices, IFS listens and accepts them. It was a profound recognition: that healing comes not from suppression, but from welcome. For me, it was a relief that there was finally a model of the mind that was both compassionate and coherent, one that held the complexity of human experience and trauma. It also aligned deeply with my understanding of the Self as sacred and spacious, something I loved from my study of Vedic wisdom.
And the fourth was The Monastery itself, a light-filled building, healing through silence. It became more than a backdrop. It became part of the medicine, a place to hold people when the world outside (and inside) was too much. Elaine Griffiths CEO raised funding and provided space for the very first pilot after lock down - a time when it was needed more than ever.
These four elements - Aidan’s vision, my own questing and lived experience, the compassionate framework of IFS, and the sacred ground of The Monastery, fused together.
From that fusion, the Listening Service was born.
WHAT EMERGED
When we first put out the call for volunteer listeners, we thought a handful might come forward. Instead, we were inundated with people stepping up, many carrying scars of their own. A huge wave of community wisdom, often gained from turning post-traumatic stress into growth.
Since then, we have trained 44 listeners, and facilitated nearly two thousand volunteer-led, free one-to-one appointments.Each visitor carries a story. Each one is met with presence.
There was the man who had become so isolated and lonely, who came in looking grey and hopeless. He was heard, loved, and slowly grew in confidence. He joined a group, then ran a group, and finally, against all odds fell in love. He was unrecognisable and full of vitality just a few months after his first visit.
There was the woman shamed by the system, silenced by injury and stigma. She barely spoke when she arrived. Slowly, gently, words returned. Her voice came back. Her life-force returned.
There was the mother battling cancer, terrified her children would be taken if she reached out for help. Here, she found safety. Here, she was held.
There was the man whose GP wouldn’t listen, until we did. It took our listening, our letter, and even an episode of psychosis before he was finally heard.
“I spent the first session just crying. The listener was patient and calm. After the tears came clarity.”
These are not isolated stories. They are patterns. Shame dissolves in the presence of compassion. Fear softens when held without judgement. Words return when silence is no longer heavy with stigma, but fertile with possibility.
We should never have to wait until crisis.
Listening should come sooner.
THE IMPACT & THE FUTURE
What we have learned is simple and radical: listening heals.
But there is more. The training itself transforms the lives of the listeners and ripples into their worlds - their families, their work, their communities. We realised it is not only the service that is powerful, but the reawakening of the often-forgotten skill of listening in each and every one of us.
“Becoming a Listener has changed who I am. The anxiety I woke up with every morning has gone. My relationships and parenting have deepened.”
So the impact is threefold.
First, individuals find sanctuary within themselves. Anxiety eases. Shame lifts. The nervous system finds space to breathe.
Second, relationships transform. Couples speak differently. Parents hear their children. Friends reconnect and conflicts resolve.
Third, communities strengthen. Compassion ripples outward. Groups form. People step forward — not just as clients, but as listeners themselves.
And this is only the beginning.
We dream of Manchester as the City that Listens. Imagine a listener in every school, every street, every organisation. Imagine deep, radical listening taught in classrooms. I see compassion running like a river through the city - carrying us, cleansing us, reminding us of who we are.
Listening is not absence. It is presence. It is infrastructure. It is the foundation of the kinder, more connected society we know is possible.
This is Aidan’s legacy, The Sanctuary’s gift, The Monastery’s birthplace, and our revolution.
Some legacies fade into memory. Others become movements. This is ours.
JOIN THE QUIET REVOLUTION
If this story moves you, you’re already part of it. We are building a network of 1,000 listeners, people who bring calm, connection, and compassion into homes, workplaces and communities.
Join us in this quiet revolution. Learn to listen in a way that transforms lives, beginning with your own.
Sign up for the Radical Listening Course
Become part of the Sanctuary’s growing movement for a kinder, more connected world.
Read more about the life and compassionate work of Prof. Aidan Halligan here
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