Real Dialogue: A Method Based on Mindfulness and Psychoanalysis

Real Dialogue is a method and a skill designed to maintain the emotional space for dialogue during polarization, emotional threat, stress, or perceived offense. It counteracts our natural tendencies to dehumanize each other and create enemies when we feel unheard, unseen, or unknown. Different from conflict resolution, mediation, or any form of compromise, Real Dialogue is a form of negotiation or creative conflict that allows individuals to remain mindful and in contact while in disagreement.

In any conflict or discovery process, people need each other’s perspectives in order to find endu...Read morering solutions. New ideas and meaning are not always obvious, but can be discovered through authentic and open contact with others, something that humans guard against when they feel threatened.

Real Dialogue is used between adults who are in dispute in families, at work, or in the public domain.

Topics covered in this workshop are:
1. The Skills of Real Dialogue: Speaking for Yourself, Listening Mindfully and Remaining Curious;
2. When is Real Dialogue necessary?
3. The complexity of the “snow globe” of human subjectivity;
4. How to train yourself and others to use Real Dialogue during emotional activation and threat;
5. How Real Dialogue can help to expand one’s ability to use conflict effectively as a means to creativity and lasting solutions;
6. How the cycle of repetitive conflicts can be broken through the application of Real Dialogue mindfulness practices. Less...

Learning Objectives

• Explain why the theory of the “snow globe” of subjectivity is critically important for untangling projective identifications
• Define “emotional threat,” the feelings associated with it, and what it evokes in others.
• Identify the role of emotional triggers in eliciting feelings of shame, humiliation, anxiety or rage in self and others.

Target Audience

Learning Levels

• Intermediate

Saturday, February 05, 2022

11:00 AM EST - 02:15 PM EST