Resolve conflicts in your community and family

Sat 13 and Sun 14 February 9.30 am – 4 pm each day
cost: € 120

Learn the art of disagreeing without falling out.
Language and communication skills that strengthen our ability to remain human, even under trying conditions. These skills guide us in reframing how we express ourselves and hear others. Instead of being habitual, automatic reactions, our words become conscious responses based firmly on an awareness of what we are perceiving, feeling, and wanting. We are led to express ourselves with honesty and clarity, while simultaneously paying others a respectful and empathic attention. In any exchange, we come to hear our own deeper needs and those of others. When we focus on clarifying what is being observed, felt, and needed rather than on diagnosing and judging, we discover the depth of our own compassion.
This 2-day course offers you practical exercises designed to help you learn new ways of communicating, of de-escalating conflicts and creating more harmonious relationships. Non-Violent Communication is the main approach used.
Other topics cover:
– The awareness of how inevitable power differences in relationships can cause conflicts and how these can be dealt with creatively.
– how working on just one side (our side) of a conflict can be the key to resolving relationship problems.

This course is designed for people who want to use conflicts as an opportunity for learning more about themselves and the people around them. Approaches such as Non-Violent Communication developed by M. Rosenberg will be an important part of the course. Other approaches include The Work, developed by Byron Katie and Processwork, developed by Arnold Mindell. This course will facilitate learning from the experiences of other course participants as well as from the tutor. There will be also be opportunities for deepening the learning through role play and other experiential exercises.

Course Contents:

Active Listening

Compassionate and Assertive Communication

The Work

Dealing with emotional allergies

Emotional Freedom Technique

Mediation and other rituals for reconciliation

Training Bio
Thomas Riedmuller Hns BA, co-founder and resident of The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability and director of the Family Resource Centre Dunmanway, offers workshops and training about Conflict Resolution, Participatory Group Facilitation, Consensus Decision Making, Team Building, Cooperative Games and general Communication Training. He can also be hired as a Group Facilitator and Family or Community Mediator. He is available for half or full day sessions for groups and hourly sessions for individuals as well as for talks and workshops. Thomas holds a university degree in conference interpreting and communication and has completed intensive training in conflict facilitation for groups and individuals. He has worked with national and international organisations and businesses, with Irish primary and secondary schools, and regularly teaches Leadership and Conflict Resolution courses at University College Cork, and several other Adult Education Centres including two year long modules at Kinsale Further Education College.
What participants said about Thomas’ courses:
‘I found that the strategies and suggestions we discussed have helped me to communicate better, both at work and in my voluntary community commitments. I would highly recommend Thomas’ course to anyone who wishes to improve their personal or public communication style, or anyone who wishes to become a more effective group leader’
Anna Ridgeway, B.A., M.Ed., PhD, HDE, Adv.Dip.Mont.Educ.

‘Thomas Riedmuller is clearly a gifted teacher and communicator. His lectures are highly organised. I believe he is making a major contribution to community development in the Cork area and that his teachings should form an essential module in all second level civics programmes.’
Tony Power B.A., HDE, D.Cat., Dip.Philos.