Professional Development Classes

​Active and Empathetic Listening

​Active and Empathetic listening is a core communication skill for any working environment. In this class, you review the barriers to really hearing and understanding another person and you practice listening in a way that ensures you really understand the underlying message of what the other person is saying.

Cultural Literacy and Awareness Workshop

In this highly interactive class, we review the basics of the communication and the societal expectation differences between cultures to build awareness and sensitivity when interacting in new environments.  Students learn the five stages of cultural understanding (also known as culture shock) and gain an understanding of the five key differences between cultural communication styles.

Learned Helplessness in Adult Education

​In this interactive class, attendees learn about learned helplessness in the adult education community. The focused discussion and activities will help students become more aware of the underlying factors, organizational attitudes, and the social  impact of an often difficult to understand problem.  Bring an open mind and willingness to learn in a small group setting.

Mindfulness in Conflict: Responding with Wisdom

In this workshop, you will learn the basic emotional awareness skills that are the most helpful when dealing with conflict or stressful situations. By covering and practicing how to best respond in stressful situations, you will learn your own stress response style, how and when to be assertive, and learn a technique to help you keep your emotional control when someone pushes your buttons. 
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This class is often combined with the How to Set Boundaries class.

How to Set Boundaries and Give/Receive Feedback

In this workshop, attendees learn how to be on both sides of boundary setting, instructional feedback, and project correction conversations. Through learning about direct vs. indirect as well as evaluative vs. objective responses, attendees learn how to give and receive feedback that is helpful for modifying behavior.

We discuss authority, legitimacy of leadership, the pitfalls of over and under correction, and the structures that can be put in place to make this process easier to manage.

Meditation Classes

Meditation: An Intro to Different Methods

Meditation is one of the more powerful ways to increase our self-awareness and create greater freedom in our actions and choices. In this class, we talk about meditation's role in our daily life and have the opportunity to practice many different types of meditation in ten to twenty-minute periods so participants can try out several different forms.  

Mindfulness Meditation: 6 Week Class

In this class, you learn the core components of Mindfulness Meditation merged with fundamental Emotional Intelligence skills in order to strengthen your practice and gain greater self-awareness. Mindfulness is the core skill that centers around your ability to be fully present in the current moment.

Specifically, this class teaches awareness of the body, emotions, and thoughts along with lovingkindness as a practice.

​Mindfulness increases awareness of your body and emotions, and provides greater insight into how your thoughts and mind work. ​Merged with Emotional intelligence training, you learn additional skills on how to better identify, work with, and consciously create your emotional responses.
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Meditation Techniques to Relax More and Stress Less

Many people feel the impact of stress on their lives but have a very limited set of techniques to bring their stress levels down. This workshop teaches breathing exercises, guided imagery tools, the basics of insight meditation, and other easy-to-use techniques to help manage stress in more effective ways. These additional tools and techniques give people more options as they find better ways to relax more and stress less. ​

Meditation for Couples: Time Honored Techniques

Over the centuries, different traditions have used specific breath techniques, postures, and awareness practices designed to increase the emotional intimacy between partners as well as contribute to each other's personal growth. In this class, couples get an introduction to using meditation in a way that increases their emotional intimacy and connection with others.

Longer Retreats​

​Mindfulness Meditation Retreat

Unplug from technology and spend your retreat time learning more about mindfulness meditation and its practice. Mindfulness is the core skill that centers around the ability to be fully present in the current moment. Mindfulness Meditation increases awareness of our bodies and emotions, and provides the tools for greater insight into how our minds work. Developing mindfulness has been shown to increase empathy and compassion, curb stress, boost working memory, increase mental focus, and reduce someone’s emotional reactivity.

This retreat covers the basics of the practice along with Lovingkindness and Forgiveness meditation practices.

Mindfulness in Love & Communication Retreat

Love and communication are two of the biggest challenges for a lot of people. Without additional training or even ways of seeing, many people stay stuck – knowing they need to do something different but just not knowing what that is.

In this retreat, we take the time to do a deep dive into who you are, how you are relating, and work on building some fundamental mindfulness skills around love and communication.​

This retreat has both a couples and singles option.