Speak your mind but mind your speech: Communication & Dialogue training course

Our everyday interpersonal interactions are characterised by recurring communication patterns of ourselves and our counterparts. While we see the effects of these behaviours, we often don’t give a second thought to the origins of these patterns. Prominent factors in forming these patterns are personality, personal experience and culture. An essential part of culture is built around the collective experiences we have made over generations, both to positive and negative events of significance. Being aware of how these factors influence our response patterns is the first step in changing them to improve our communication to build healthier and stronger relationships.

Building relationships is especially important in the challenging times we are currently living in. Societies across Europe are increasingly polarised around political extremes and personal relationships are suffering as a result. These relationships are at the core of any functioning and cohesive society, their erosion is contributing to the difficulties that individuals across the societal and political spectrum are facing when working to change the status quo.

The Speak Your Mind But Mind Your Speech training programme is being conducted as part of a series of events for the Again: Never Again project. The project is implemented by a consortium of academic and societal organisations from eight European countries and funded by the European Commission. The goal is to spread awareness about the significance of collective trauma transmission and its effect on our everyday lives.

The focus during this two-day training programme will be to learn to critically reflect on individual and collective communication patterns and to learn the skills needed for being assertive and empathic at the same time. Being able to communicate healthily also during challenging situations will contribute to more self confidence in personal and professional settings.

The training programme is implemented by two trainers and facilitators from the Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania with multi-year experience. The programme will be a hands-on blend of practice and theory presented in an interactive and engaging manner.

Trainers

Ana David

Ana is a consultant specialized in training, executive coaching, managerial development programs and workshops. She is currently International Peace & Development Training Centre (IPDTC) Global Coordinator at PATRIR. Her focus is on constantly growing strong interpersonal skills, analytical skills, strategic outlook and creative thinking. She has a track record in creating and delivering customized, useful training programs, team buildings and managerial development programs.

For more information, you can visit Ana’s LinkedIn profile or send an email to [email protected].

Benedikt Hielscher

Benedikt works with the Department of Peace Operations as Peacebuilding and Mediation Support Officer and provides training support and facilitation for the International Peace and Development Training Centre (IPDTC) of the Romanian Peace Institute PATRIR. His focus is on building the personal and institutional capacities of changemakers and communities from across the Middle East and North Africa as well as young peacebuilders.

In addition to his work with the Romanian Peace Institute he engages as a member of the European Youth Advocacy Team of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders on advancing the implementation of European policies and legislation to support youth peacebuilding efforts in Europe and globally. Benedikt holds an MSc. in Political Psychology from Queen’s University Belfast, where he focussed on the political psychological analysis of the Middle East and North Africa.

For more information, you can visit Benedikt’s LinkedIn profile or send an email to [email protected]