Life Narrative Listening: A Theory of Practice

We introduce life narrative listening as an emerging theory of practice. The theory explores vocational listeners who listen for underlying personal narratives of those they serve in multiple ways, from healing to leading to serving. It is concerned with how these life narrative listeners, through that reception, reveal better pathways for serving, while, at times, co-construct the teller’s understanding of their own narrative. Rooted as a practice theory and grounded in cross-sections of listening and life narrative research, this work studies how listening can be a transformative, ethical, and relational act. Drawing from our engaged research, including the Storylisteners podcast and a thematic coding study with undergraduate researchers, we developed the practice theory through iterative cycles of dialogue, reflexive analysis, and grounded theorizing. Three central themes emerged from our case study of vocational listeners who are healers and leaders: emotional competence, active engagement, and holistic interest. Together, these dimensions describe how listeners move beyond active listening to explore the deeper coherence and identity within another’s life narrative. Our aim is not to present this as a finished framework but as a developing practice to invite reflection, critique, and application across listening and life narrative fields.