Is this you?

You value meeting others with empathy and being able to resolve conflicts, but find it is not so easy to do. Perhaps you shut down, get caught in arguments, try to avoid conflict, or maybe you just feel uncomfortable, not knowing what to do.

You would like to offer empathy and resolve a conflict, but you also don't want to be held hostage in repetitive arguments. Maybe you find yourself giving up your authenticity to make the relationship work. Meanwhile, you long to be fully yourself and enjoy a sense of ease and connection in a given relationship. 

Listening with empathy in the midst of conflict doesn’t mean being a silent hostage. Listening with empathy can be an active and engaged process. You can learn to interrupt repetitive or escalating conversations in a way that leaves the other person feeling heard and that moves the conversation forward in connection.

When you can access empathy for yourself and someone else, the quality of connection you create will naturally provide ease with conflict resolution.

This workshop is for you, if you are ready to learn and practice empathy and those next steps after empathy that help resolve conflict and create a new way forward. 

What to expect:

You will enter into a safe and supportive environment to learn and practice. You will have the opportunity to come together with a group of students who share your values and commitment to growth and learning. You will notice that when an entire group brings forth this clear intention and dedication, a synergistic field is created that makes it easier for you to learn and practice effectively.

You will work with examples from your own life. This means that you get to decide the level of vulnerability and challenge for each exercise. If you are a long-time student of NVC or MCD, you will be able to engage your practice edge with the support of other students and the facilitators. If you are new to this work, we will help you choose examples from your life that allow you to learn and practice without overwhelm.

The focus for any workshop offered by Wise Heart is on empowering you to learn and integrate an understanding of relationship skills and how to integrate them into everyday life.

Throughout the day there will be an introduction to concepts and skills, practice time in structured exercises within pairs or small groups, and whole-group questions and discussion time. There will be a variety of kinesthetic and verbal exercises. 

Workshop attendance typically ranges from 12-30 students. You will meet students completely new to Wise Heart and students who know each other and me from previous classes.

What's It All About?

This workshop is a unique opportunity to focus on conflict in a particular relationship and learn a progressive set of skills for resolving conflict. Thus, the day will be structured for you to move through levels of accessing empathy and resolving conflict in that particular relationship. I’m imagining the other person in the conflict is not attending the workshop with you. 

We will start the day with practicing self-empathy and receiving empathy for your experience in your chosen relationship. This will include identifying and expressing thoughts, feelings, needs, and reactive parts of yourself. 

Through role-play you will then have an opportunity to practice empathy for the other person in the relationship you have chosen. Role plays will be set up in pairs and small groups. 

In the last part of the day, you will have an opportunity to engage in role play to learn and practice setting boundaries, negotiation and creating a specific and doable agreement that supports conflict resolution.

Understanding Empathy

Empathy is the second relationship competency in Mindful Compassionate Dialogue (MCD). Empathy means listening to someone’s experience with warm curiosity. It might be offered in silence or with guesses about thoughts, feelings, and needs. Empathy is a form of attunement. Empathy requires you to stay centered and self-connected. When you offer empathy, you are not taking responsibility for the other person’s feelings and needs.

As you learn and integrate the relationship competency of empathy, you will find that you are less likely to take things personally and more able to hear someone’s message regardless of the words they use. 

Resolving conflict might include skills from any number of relationship competencies such as honest expression, identifying and managing reactivity, life-serving boundaries, and needs-based negotiation. During this day-long workshop, we will focus primarily on how to set clear life-serving boundaries and negotiate specific and doable agreements.

Details:

Trainer: LaShelle Lowe-Chardé, Jeri Parks, & Adrianna Azcarate-Ferbel

• When: 10:00am - 5:00pm, Saturday, June 25th, 2022 (lunch will be a 75 minute break at about 12:30)

• Where: Multnomah Friends Meeting, 4312 SE Stark St, Portland, OR 97215

• Payment $132.00 (If money is an obstacle for attendance, please email us at info@wiseheartpdx.org)

• COVID Policy: We ask that you complete an at home COVID test either the night before of the morning of the workshop. If you test positive, we ask you to send an email letting us know and not attend the workshop. Your payment will be refunded. If conditions regarding the pandemic remain the same or improve, masks will be optional. The space will have excellent ventilation and if weather permits, there will be the option to do paired or small group work outside.

Register:

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