BTI Continuing Education Workshops
Transforming Challenging Conversations
with Ben Benjamin, PhD
October 18, 2012 | Thursday, 9:30am-5:30pm
7 continuing education contact hours | $145 | practitioners only
In this interactive workshop, you'll learn a precise system that you can use to analyze exactly what happened in any communication—whether it's a client interaction, a staff meeting, or even your own conversations with yourself. In addition to getting insight after the fact, you can use these techniques right in the middle of a conversation; when an unproductive pattern starts to develop, you can effectively spot it, stop it, and turn it around. In this session, you’ll learn the theoretical framework underlying this system (called SAVI, the System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction) and get practice recognizing several common problematic communication patterns. You’ll gain clarity on the way in which specific behaviors derail communication, as well as effective strategies for intervening to get a conversation back on track. In particular, we’ll focus on four of the most potentially destructive communication behaviors: mind-reads, negative predictions, complaints, and yes-buts.
You’ll leave this training with:
- A clear understanding of why what you say matters less than how you say it
- A comprehensive framework for understanding why any conversation succeeds or fails
- Increased awareness of the unconstructive communication patterns in your own life and work
- Targeted strategies for resolving some of the most common causes of communication breakdow
- A plan for using your new skills to tackle a specific communication challenge that you’re facing
Ben E. Benjamin is well-known the field of massage and bodywork as one of our leading authors, educators and clinicians. In recent years, Dr. Benjamin’s teaching and writing efforts have focused increasingly on work with the dynamics of commuication. He is a co-founder of SAVI Training Partners, a group that provides seminars and consulting to individuals, companies and organizations in the System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction. He is co-author of the forthcoming book, Conversation Transformation.
His professional training and education spans four decades. He earned a Ph.D. in Sports Medicine and Education at Union Graduate School; a Bachelor of Professional Sciences at Empire State College; and studied assessment techniques in Orthopedic Medicine with the well-known British Physician, James Cyriax, M.D.