AN OPENING
A workshop + practice series
THE WORKSHOP
Format: In-Person Workshop
Date: Friday, August 1st–Saturday, August 2nd 2025
Time: 6:00pm–9:00pm, 9:00am–5:00pm (ET)
Location: TBA (University City, Charlotte NC)
The in-person workshop provides the foundational framework. The four-week virtual series supports integration—where new practices meet your real-life situations. Participation in the virtual sessions requires attendance at the in-person workshop.
THE PRACTICE
Format: Four Online Sessions
Date: Thursdays: August 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th 2025
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm ET
Location: Zoom
This workshop is not just about picking up new tools to improve your conversations. It is a chance to slow down the search for quick fixes and try a different way of learning. Here, the focus is on presence, curiosity, and shared discovery.
What if controversy doesn’t have to mean contention? What if, instead of one side winning or the other side giving up, disagreement could become an invitation to a rich space where previously unconsidered possibilities can emerge?
This is not a training in debate or communication skills. It’s an invitation to practice a new orientation.
To listen for what matters beneath the words
To nurture resonance and to sense making in conversation
To navigate beyond collapse or combat to engagement toward a mutually beneficial future
To transform power differentials from producing vulnerability to providing support
To cultivate the skills and sensibilities for building futures together
To the moments of uncertainty and wonder that surface when we engage deeply with one another
We will pay attention to what can happen between people when we stop trying to control or label everything. Instead, we will practice listening with openness.
You will not leave with a simple list of techniques. You may leave with something that lasts longer: a stronger ability to stay present with what is hard to sort out, and to meet others in ways that feel honest, human, and alive.
If you’re ready to explore a new way of being in conversation—one grounded in presence, possibility, and partnership,
JOIN US.