Classes in this course are suitable for:Community Newcomers | Community Starters | Community Residents

Course Description

Do you have an intellectual understanding of how to communicate in conflict, but find it challenging to use those skills in the heat of the moment? In this 6-week course, students will learn the root cause of our reactivity in conflict, and how to transform our reactions to responses. 

On a physical level, our bodies experience conflict as a threat. As a result, we instinctively protect ourselves by reacting through defensiveness, people-pleasing, or avoidance – often before we even recognize what’s happening. These defense mechanisms are what take conflict from a manageable problem to a difficult relationship rupture.  

Choosing to respond instead of react requires an embodied understanding of the mind/body connection while in conflict. Studying nonviolent communication and other approaches to conflict is beneficial for learning how to communicate more effectively, but your ability to do so in the heat of conflict is actually rooted in your relationship to your nervous system.

This course is designed to give you the missing piece that will empower you to transform the root challenges of your conflicts: a deeper understanding of the nervous system. Through a blend of nervous system education and embodied practice, you will learn how your physiology shapes how you show up within conflict, gain more compassion and grace for yourself and others, develop a deeper relationship to your nervous system, and expand your capacity to interrupt and transform unconscious and unhealthy reactions to conflict.

Classes are interactive, offering a blend of curriculum, small-group and whole-group discussion, guided embodied exercises, time for integration, and 1:1 connection about the course material. Each class will open with an orienting or grounding practice and close with song or movement.

Topics we will cover include: the activation cycle, nervous system threat responses, noticing body sensations, how power dynamics and attachment show up in conflict, and an embodied approach to receiving feedback and offering empathy. Nervous system curriculum will heavily draw from Somatic Experiencing frameworks.

This course is for you if:

• You do a lot of work to manage your reactions to others, but feel tension in your body from holding so much back
• You notice that yourself or others get reactive or avoidant within conflict, even when you don’t want to be, and you want support to change this
• You have studied nonviolent communication, but struggle to use it when tension arises in your relationships
• You are smart, intellectual, and analytical, but don’t yet have a strong practice of listening to your body
• You often have out-of-proportion reactions to small conflicts, misunderstandings, or mistakes
• You want to deepen your understanding of and your relationship to your nervous system to improve your general quality of life

 

Course Syllabus

All Transforming Conflict with the Mind/Body Connection classes are held on Wednesdays from 2pm-4pm Pacific / 3pm-5pm Mountain / 4pm-6pm Central / 5pm-7pm Eastern. You can view your local time here.

April 1: Understanding the Nervous System

• The nervous system and the activation cycle
• The trauma vortex and the counter vortex
• Building resource & co-regulation

April 8: Nervous System Response to Conflict and Power

• The nervous system threat responses and how they show up in conflict
• How power dynamics impact the nervous system and show up in conflict
• Identifying and working with different conflict response style(s)

April 15: Learning the Language of Your Nervous System

• Titration and pendulation
• Noticing and naming body sensations and emotions
• Pausing to stay with discomfort and integrate activation

April 22: Understanding Your Attachment Style and Activators in Conflict

• Attachment styles and the nervous system
• Identifying and working with common conflict activators
• Completing self-protective responses

April 29: Holding Ourselves and Others in Conflict

• Practicing receiving feedback or disappointment
• Pausing to feel and reflect in the heat of a moment
• Working with grief and shame in our bodies

May 6: Empathy, Support, and Connection in Conflict

• The power of empathy for embodied settling
• Embodied empathy practice (reaching for support)
• Personal reflections & appreciations

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May 13:Q&A Session

• Ask any additional questions
• Get personalized help
• Networking

The Q&A session is optional and will take place from 2pm-3pm Pacific / 3pm-4pm Mountain / 4pm-5pm Central/ 5pm-6pm Eastern. You must register for the full course to attend the Q&A session. The Q&A session will NOT be recorded.

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