Emotional Liberation Workshop
Saturday February 29 and Sunday March 1
“Emotional Liberation” is an immersion Nonviolent Communication workshop on supporting how we relate with others, how we deepen our most intimate relationships, and how we connect to ourselves and strangers.
My experience has been wonderful. So I’ll be totally candid. I felt safe immediately. The group, you know, immediately kind of offered a safe environment where I felt comfortable to be able to share openly, and you know, felt somewhat similar to the folks.
When we did our empathy pairing, I worked with Elly the first time. And the truth is, I’ll be honest, I felt like at the end of that hour that I’d never been heard as well, as I had during that hour. Never in my life. That was honestly a fairly profound experience. I felt very heard and very accepted by Elly.
I have really enjoyed the sessions I have attended. It’s been a unique experience. Not like anything else I’ve seen or heard of. I’m meeting with total strangers, but within 15 to 20 minutes, I feel connected, more connected with them than with a lot of people that I’ve known for years. And that’s pretty magical. And it’s done in a very matter-of-fact way. It’s no surprise. This is just what it means to really connect. And it’s reliable. Every time I go, I know that’s gonna happen. It’s really cool.
I just love the safety that Elly and David have created in their home. The welcoming of others into their house to learn such an important, life changing skill. And the grace they have given to people for being okay to learn and fail in that environment. Sharing and expressing the occurrences that are happening in their life and feeling safe that it is confidential, that is what they both have created. And going further in the didactic and trying to use the tools in real life situations is life saving. It is so great. It has been lovely.
Dear fellow-traveler on the path of personal development,
Are you frustrated with your relationships? Sad, lonely, disappointed?
Are you stuck in the same communication cycles? Too much judgment, not enough listening, too little sharing?
Maybe you have ended a relationship, because you found it too challenging, and now wished there had been some repair.
Or you are in a relationship, that isn’t working and don’t know how to change it.
There are probably others,
Who are prone to being impulsive and reactive, especially when there is an emotional investment in the relationship.
People like me, who have learned to use force when our needs are unmet, or resentful when someone is asking for something that doesn’t work for us.
Or people, also like me, who are a sort of emotional slave, consoling and fixing people’s intense emotions, because their pain is too uncomfortable for us.
I wonder who else has prejudices about others, without being conscious of how those prejudices impact our relationships.
I’m pretty sure that I am not the only one who does things habitually, more up in our thoughts than being in the present moment.
And I bet there are at least a dozen or so who can be oblivious to which needs are important to us, and why we are so concerned with our to-do list.
What if you are the common denominator?
You know that communication is the foundation for relationships,
And even though you think you might not be a natural at it, you know that with practice you will get better.
You imagine a shift in your relationships, not so closed and on guard. Where the energy flows, open and relaxed, breathing life again.
You dream of a set of life skills, so you can help others when they are in stress and bring healing.
You long for meeting real people with real stories, who show up authentically and don’t pretend to be something they’re not.
If there was a way to build that foundation and transform your relationships,
Would you invest in yourself to learn those communication skills?
Would you care enough about yourself and your loved ones to build that foundation?
Would you trust that even if you think you are junior varsity at communication, you can master these skills?
If it only took two days to lay that foundation,
Would you spend them for your loved ones?
We do have two weekly practice meetings. But they are only two+ hours long. So we can’t dive really deep in the material. We can’t immerse ourselves in a paradigm shift and create new habits and neural pathways.
Then we thought: “What if we offer two full days to explore emotional liberation? And really get into the grit of transforming emotional slavery and obnoxiousness in a healthy dynamic with others?”
And we got really excited to support you to:
- Understand the difference between needs and strategies
- See how our feelings are a result of our thoughts and needs being met or unmet
- Practice mindfulness, even when triggered
- Be more conscious about the way we listen to people
- Prepare for a conversation particularly difficult and find a mutually agreeable resolution
- Hit the pause button, slow down, take some deep breaths, and just listen and reflect back
- Strenghten the empathy-superpower muscle
So we designed a program: “Emotional Liberation”
The life-changing things you will get out of attending:
- What a bougainvillea has to do with your needs
- How practicing a trigger exercise can help you stay calm
- The common denominator between chocolate, hamburger, and collard greens
- How drawing inside a child symbol can nurture your self-compassion
- What a check-engine light can teach you about feelings
- The reason that serving others’ needs can be exhausting
- What balancing on a rola-bola has to do with mindfulness
- Elly’s secret to get the yummiest vegan dish at a steakhouse
It’s two full days, 10:00 am-4:30 pm. In person, here in Austin.
The investment for the Emotional Liberation workshop is only $216.
My experience with the group is very uplifting. All I can say is, I feel like so much gratitude to David and Elly and every member of the group that I’ve met. They’ve just uplifted me and enlightened me and showed me how to, you know, celebrate my life with empathy and compassion and sympathy.
I’ve become a better listener. I can empathize. With the person that I’m having a conversation with, which really helps me become intimate and close. And it opens me up to new possibilities and all these relationships, because now that I’m being honest and authentic, it’s just like it’s opening the door, swinging wide open. And all my relationships have begun just taking a great step forward. With my family and even in my personal life and business life.
When one of my daughters reached out to me… she was mourning her mother… I put myself in her shoes. I ran over and just chatting with her and empathizing. And I’ve just opened up with my daughter. I’m very, very close and I’m very happy. So happy, tears of joy that I’m reconnecting with my children once again.
Since practicing in the group I’m a better, more empathetic listener, being more mindful about how I interact and talk to people and listen to them.
It’s easier to pick up on things. I feel like I’m more trained, or attentive, or mindful about listening to certain things. And now I kind of see why for Elly and David, there’s, I don’t want to call them shortcuts, but that there are, you get a degree of practice. And so you learn, over time, I guess you learn, to pick up on things that you might not have ordinarily seen before. And it becomes faster and quicker to pick up on those things, and read or guess at the feelings and needs of other people and yourself.
And so that’s where I feel like that the practice has helped instill a value to me, and probably will always be a value to me.
And for me, what I experienced was that someone, whether that was David or Elly or so, it was almost like for the first time, I felt really listened to and really understood. Without any judgment. And that’s very healing. It’s actually therapeutic. I enjoy that a lot.
I enjoy the relationships that I build with Elly and with David, but also with other people there. It’s a great relationship builder, you really get to know each other in a short time. And the other thing I notice is that when you meet people you do not know, you look at them, you check them out, you always have prejudices. It’s always nice to see how those prejudices fall away and how the walls between people fall away. It is really nice to get to know real people with real stories. Not fake people with fake stories. It’s so real. It’s real life. People stop pretending to be something that they’re not.
Meet your facilitator David:
Elly about David: David has an amazing ability to understand where people are coming from and adjust the teaching material to their needs. I find him funny, creative, and direct. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of learning. I love his vulnerability when he is fixing something he didn’t mean to say. And by the way, did you know that he has 100+ juggling world records?
Meet your facilitator Elly:
David about Elly: Elly is like trying to bottle a thunderstorm or a walk in a meadow full of little flowers. There is so much richness you need to slow down to take it all in. There’s a little bit that’s unpredictable, there’s something surprising, and certainly something vulnerable and inspiring. She is a reminder to look at what is alive in my life.
Count me in!
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
