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"Do you want to sit down and talk?"

The therapist smiled and raised her sign, which said "Sidewalk Talk," and repeated the question to each downtown Portland passerby.

Mostly, they passed by.

"I have an appointment."

"No thanks, I'm fine."

Or nothing at all.

Funny how hard a group offering "free listening" has to work to be heard.

The crew consisted of five therapists, including Traci Ruble, a San Franciscan partially responsible for starting Sidewalk Talk, which trains and deploys volunteer listeners in cities across the country. In Portland, all five volunteers were counselors, but the only requirement is a willingness to listen.

"When we all feel heard, that actually promotes mental wellness," said Ruble. "When there's a listening ear, people feel like they matter."

And so, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Ruble and a handful of the city's best listeners waited in folding chairs at the corner of Lownsdale Square, sandwiched between the county and federal court buildings -- the kind of place people with heavy burdens pass during lunch hour.

"It's highly convenient that it was across the street from the courthouse. That's where the emotion is," said Helice Schulze, who stopped to talk with one of the counselors. She's a year and a half into an ugly county case against her brother, she said, and emotionally unloading in the park prepared her to be stronger in the courtroom.