Custom Workshops
Bring a customized workshop to your team or organization to cultivate greater effectiveness, mindfulness, and resilience in these complex times. The workshops are designed to empower participants to embody new ways of being, responding, and connecting with themselves and others. Participants learn concrete personal and relational practices into their work and life to become more present, resilient, and effective.
Workshop components generally include illustrating and exploring key concepts through research, stories, reflection, and discussion; guided awareness practices; small group discussion and activities, journaling with prompts/guided reflection, and committing to take action.
Read below for examples of the types of workshops I offer virtually or in person for organizations, startups, teams, at universities, and at conferences. I can tailor workshops to meet your space, time available, and specific needs.
From Parts to Presence - Answering the Call with Clarity, Confidence, and Creativity
In this session, we’ll explore a simple and radical question: what if nothing is missing in yourself and others? What if you and your team members are already whole human beings and have exactly what it takes to answer the call and do the work you’re here to do?
When we’re trying to do big, hard things and tackle sticky issues, our inner protective mechanisms or Parts can get triggered and we can get stuck. We have many Parts, each with their own concerns, strategies, tactics, interpretations, feelings, and embodiments that are triggered habitually and therefore often exist just beyond the reach of our conscious sense of self. All Parts have good intentions yet their strategies can also have unintended negative impacts. In this session, we’ll learn how to identify these Parts of ourselves, and learn to shift into Presence, our most centered, resourced, and wisest self.
Just like a team member doesn’t like being ignored or called names, neither do these Parts of us. When we turn toward these Parts with compassion and learn more about them, they naturally ease up on their strategy giving us space to move forward with more clarity, confidence, and creativity. We can approach our team members in the same way - with kindness and curiosity and seeking to understand their good intentions - during difficult conversations. What’s possible when we center in Presence as a team?
By the end of the session, you’ll
Have been introduced to a framework for identifying and understanding Parts and shifting into Presence;
Have experienced practices for working with Parts;
Have connected and practiced empathic, mindful listening and sharing with team members in a way that builds trust, makes them feel seen and heard, and unlocks their innate capacity and resourcefulness;
Have a menu of “micro-practices” that you can integrate into your daily work and life to support lasting integration.
Building Resilience in Challenging Times
Navigating work and life amidst changing and challenging circumstances is stressful and at times overwhelming. Our nervous systems are not designed to endure prolonged periods of stress. Resilience is the capacity and skill to meet and effectively navigate an increasingly wide range of life experiences, and to resource and recover ourselves when we get thrown off. Building our resilience helps us be with and effectively navigate more and more of the experiences that work, life, and our environment present to us every day so we can show up in a more centered, compassionate, and effective way for ourselves and everyone around us. We can learn to bounce back and resource ourselves when we shift into the burnout zone. In this workshop, we’ll explore approaches and micro-practices to help us develop our capacity and ability to function effectively amidst challenge, change, and uncertainty.
By the end of the session, you’ll
Have been introduced to information, approaches and tools to develop both the capacity and ability to effectively function amidst challenges, change, and uncertainty;
Have experienced practices for cultivating resilience;
Have connected and practiced empathic, mindful listening and sharing with team members;
Have a menu of “micro-practices” that you can integrate into your daily work and life to support lasting integration.
Freeing Yourself from the Inner Critic and Unlocking Your Fullest Leadership Potential
Navigating both work and life as a leader is stressful and, at times, overwhelming in these challenging and complex times. Who would you be if you had an “inner coach” who’s calm, wise, and supportive when things are hard?
We all have an “inner critic” that focuses on what’s wrong with us, others, and our circumstances. When we live from a place of personal deficiency and lack of self-worth, we're limited in achieving our fullest potential in our leadership, work, life, and relationships. We're not fully present to our innate wholeness, genius, and resourcefulness. The common impacts of the inner critic / self-judgment include:
Focusing our attention on what’s wrong and deficient with us, others, and our circumstances in counterproductive ways;
Feelings of guilt, regret, shame, anxiety, anger, and disappointment;
Relationship conflicts and feelings of isolation;
Focusing our limited energy and time to fulfill the standards set by the inner critic; and
Limiting our learning and taking risks to do something new or different.
In this interactive session, we'll explore simple and accessible mindfulness-based practices for freeing ourselves from the grip of the inner critic and being more compassionate and kinder to ourselves (and others). According to researchers Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer, “Self-compassion motivates like a good coach, with kindness, support, and understanding, not harsh criticism.” We can learn to shift from our inner critic to our inner coach. As we acknowledge and care for what’s happening inside of us, we can become - as research on self-compassion has shown - more motivated and productive, more confident, more resilient, more fulfilled, and less stressed and anxious.
Clear is Kind - Being Assertive and Holding Yourself and Others Accountable
As managers and team members, how do we set clear expectations and hold others accountable without sacrificing connection with others? In this session, we’ll explore taking assertive action by which we actively take care of our needs and rights as well as the needs and rights of others to accomplish our shared goals. When we are acting in an assertive way, we invite others to do the same. Assertiveness flows naturally as we learn to disidentify from our reactive Parts and function as Presence.
By the end of the session, you’ll
Have been introduced to a framework for taking assertive action, making impeccable commitments, providing clear, specific, and objective feedback, and holding others accountable;
Have identified Parts that get triggered and prevent taking assertive action;
Have practiced being assertive and providing clear feedback with team members in a way that doesn’t compromise connection;
Have practices that you can integrate into your leadership style to support lasting integration.