Let’s regenerate the authentic heart of being human
We invite you to a unique, ongoing opportunity to experience the power and potential of connected circle-based practices and a caring, generative community. Together, we’ll open a pathway towards healing our fractured world and building our collective capacity to thrive amidst change. Together we'll practice the art of possibility!
In a safe, online space, through engaging questions, dialogue, and reflective practices, we will explore and gain insight into our individual and collective potential, authentic power, and inherent wisdom. You’ll connect and engage with like-hearted souls on a path to unity, truth, goodness, and beauty.
If you have a longing or calling to be part of a community where you have a felt-sense of belonging where you feel truly seen, heard, safe, and supported, then reach out and join with us in the practice of possibility.
More things are possible together!
What you'll experience
This is a highly interactive and experiential program. You won't see much in the way of presentations. Instead, through powerful questions, connections, dialogue and reflections, we will learn, integrate, inspire, and gain new insights together.
Almost everything will come in the form of an invitation. From the invitation, you get to decide your level of participation and the richness of your experience. As in life, what you get out of this experience, will be what you put into it. The possibilities are yours to own. If you show up, be present, and fully engage in the conversations and the opportunities to deeply connect with yourself and others, we expect you will experience a felt sense of:
- Belonging, connection, friendship and trust
- Being respected, safe, seen, heard and supported
- Being stretched with into new levels of awareness
- Hope, purpose and expanded possibilities
- The power and potential of conscious community
Is this right for you?
You'll know if this is right for you. It may come as an inner 'knowing' or 'calling' to take this journey with us. You might notice a deep resonance with the possibility that small groups of coherent, passionate people can have a significant impact on our world. You might sense that some of your own longings may be fulfilled here.
The Cohering Community experience is about moving from longing to landing! Instead of craving to find belonging in a world that works for all, we are inviting you to step into the possibilities and own your part in co-creating it now! Together, in support of each other, we'll live into the realization of our longings, and co-create a better world, one caring circle at a time.
This program may not be for you if you are deeply lost in the problems of the world, and unwilling or unable to imagine the possibilities. While we all get lost from time to time in blaming others or playing the victim, this experience is about living into the future we long for, rather than dwelling on the past, or trying to fix each other. That said, in our circle we will practice holding each other wherever we are at, with empathy, care, compassion, and, of course, possibility!
You are invited to join us for the Whole Journey
Our ongoing journey will take us one step at a time through six essential community conversations as outlined in Peter Block’s book, “Community – The Structure of Belonging.” In addition, we will include additional conversations and some open Bohmian Dialogue sessions based on the work of physicist David Bohm.
While you can drop in at any time for one session or more, we invite you to commit to the whole journey. In our experience, the more sessions you attend, the deeper you will connect with others, and the more you will learn, grow and feel like you belong.
Think of this as an oasis or sanctuary that you can come back to again and again to regenerate, recharge, have engaging conversations, gain new insight, and meet like-hearted souls. We anticipate that you will experience profound synchronicity and possibilities emerging out of the InterBeing!
As an extension of your experience here, we'll invite you to:
- Join our digital community, which includes discussion forums, resources and other events.
- Create, cohere and host your own circles with the support of our Evolutionary Leaders Lab.
..Join the Conversation!
You can register for one or more conversations below, but to get the full experience, we encourage you to commit to the complete 'Conversations That Matter' program from February 6th to March 13th. Registering for the first item below will register you for the full program. If you cannot complete the full program, then individually register for the specific dates you intend to join us.
My passion in this life is life; in all its shapes and forms. From a young age I felt curious and fascinated by connections and relations, whether it be within myself, with others or nature. I was very drawn to the possibilities that reside within each and every one of us, in particular when coming together, when we allow and invite the possibilities. Through this interest and by combining two of my favourite things, sports and behavioral science, I started training within Sport Psychology. This was a ´great venture and a wonderful learning journey. Later, these studies were transferred into the field of Organizational Psychology.
Now, this passion has brought me in the direction of deep transformation and sustained change, where I practice as a deep transformational coach. Still, my calling is pulling me towards the endless possibilities emerging when being and experiencing our togetherness – here is where I love to spend my time!
‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there’ (Rumi).
I am passionate about working with organizations and community to expand their capacities for authentic connection, leadership, collaboration and innovation. I especially love facilitating Open Space Technology meetings. I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating several peace conferences for Rotarians, co-founded the PeaceLeaders Collaborative and facilitated Greater Moncton, Canada becoming an International City of Peace. On a regular basis, I host open, online Leadership Dialogues and Peace Cafés using the Bohm Dialogue method.
I resonate with Gandhi’s statement, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” For the last 20+ years, I have studied, taught and worked with hundreds of individuals to elevate their lives from the inside -> out by changing limiting beliefs, forgiveness, releasing trauma, and integrating shadow. I especially love doing “Shadow integration work.” 'Shadow,' often birthed in trauma, is at the core of most limiting behaviours and largely responsible for the polarization we are experiencing in our world today.
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In this program, you will experience many conversations designed to deepen our coherence and connection with ourselves and others. These core conversations include 6 tried and proven conversations from Peter Block's book, "Community - The Structure of Belonging".
People become powerful when they choose to shift the context within which they act in the world. Communities are human systems given form by conversations that build relatedness. The conversations that build relatedness most often occur through associational life, where people show up by choice.
Each of these conversations will be experienced through inquiry with powerful questions. The power is in the inquiry, not the answers. The Peter Block conversations that are included in the program are:
- The Invitation Conversation
"Invitation is the means through which hospitality is created. Invitation counters the conventional belief that change requires a mandate or persuasion. Invitation honors the importance of choice, the necessary condition for accountability." - Peter Block - The Possibility Conversation
The distinction is between possibility and problem-solving. Possibility is a future beyond our reach. The possibility conversation works on us and evolves from a discussion of personal crossroads. It takes the form of a declaration, best made publicly. - The Ownership Conversation
It asks people to act as if they are creating what exists in the world. The distinction is between ownership and blame. - The Dissent Conversation
The dissent conversation creates an opening for commitment. When dissent is expressed, just listen. Don't solve it, defend against it, or explain anything. The primary distinction is between dissent and lip service. A second distinction is between dissent and denial, rebellion, or resignation. - The Commitment Conversation
The commitment conversation is a promise with no expectation of return. Commitment is distinguished from barter. The enemy of commitment is lip service, not dissent or opposition.
The commitments that count the most are ones made to peers and other citizens/members. We have to explicitly provide support for members/citizens to declare that there is no promise they are willing to make at this time. Refusal to promise does not cost us our membership or seat at the table. We only lose our seat when we do not honor our word. - The Gifts Conversation
The leadership and citizen/member task is to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center. The distinction is between gifts and deficiencies or needs. We are not defined by deficiencies or what is missing. We are defined by our gifts and what is present. We choose our destiny when we have the courage to acknowledge our own gifts and choose to bring them into the world. A gift is not a gift until it is offered.
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What is Bohm Dialogue?
Over a span of 25 years, David Bohm spent a considerable amount of time in conversation with the famous philosopher and teacher, Jiddu Krisnamurti. From Bohm's experience of these conversations, David Bohm proposed a powerful, free flowing way of dialoguing where people practice experiencing everyone's point of view fully, equally and non-judgmentally in order to reach common understanding.
Bohm felt that open dialogue could help us solve the many crises that face society and expand human consciousness. Indeed, in a world where polarized, fear and domination-based communication is the norm, Bohm dialogue gives us a simple structure to elevate the way we relate to ourselves, each other and the world, preparing the ground for deeper learning, connection and collaboration.
What happens in Bohm Dialogue?
In Bohm Dialogue, there is often no set agenda or focused subject to talk about. Instead, the topic(s) or themes emerge out of the active listening and contributions of the participants present. There is no facilitator making anything happen, but rather a 'Host' that also participates, notices when the conversation slips out of dialogue, and invites people back into the practice. The group, through their contributions of suspending, respecting, voicing and listening, notice as themes, insights, learning and wisdom naturally emerge over the course of the conversation.
A Bohm Dialogue agenda tends to be very simple:
1. Welcome: The host welcomes participants, explains the practices of dialogue and invites participants into agreement. If there is a subject or theme for the dialogue, this is clarified.
2. Check-in: Each participant does a brief 'check-in,' introducing themselves and 'what is moving within them' at the moment.
3. Flow: An open dialogue continues, taking its lead from what emerged in the check-in, following the flow of what participants notice as they speak, listen, think and feel together.
4. Closing: A final round or 'check-out' is conducted where everyone gets an opportunity to briefly share their experience and what they are taking away from the experience.
The Bohm Dialogue Practices
Participants are invited to agree to 'practices' for the dialogue. It is a 'practice', because most of us are not skilled in dialogue and fall into old polarizing habits. Together, we will develop our capacity for open dialogue but at times we will get off track, notice this, and come back into the practice. For example, consider the practice of meditation, where your mind may spin off into thinking until you notice this and pull yourself back into watching your breath. Our four Bohm Dialogue practices are:
1. SUSPENDING: Letting go of assumptions, beliefs or certainty about things and opening up to other possibilities, viewpoints, experiences or ideas. This is not about convincing others of your views, but with curiosity, attempting to connect and understand them, and in the process, knowing yourself too.
2. RESPECTING: Seeing and respecting the humanity in others and relating with empathy and compassion to their life journey. By seeing them, you may see yourself more clearly too.
3. VOICING: Discovering your authentic voice and trusting it. This is not about saying something clever or wise. It is about noticing the call within you to speak, or to just respectfully listen and notice that others might be saying exactly what you wanted to say. Speak about only one important idea at a time, rather than talking about all the run-on thoughts arising in you. Less is more. If you or someone is dominating the conversation, notice this and find a way to come back into balanced dialogue.
4. LISTENING: Listen with all your senses and intuition, to the whole person behind the words. You will be listening far more than speaking. With curiosity, hear the tone, cadence, pitch, pauses, movements, meaning, energy, emotions, values and intentions of the speakers. Be present to the beauty and richness of the silent moments too.
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Over a span of 25 years, David Bohm spent a considerable amount of time in conversation with the famous philosopher and teacher, Jiddu Krisnamurti. From Bohm's experience of these conversations, David Bohm proposed a powerful, free flowing way of dialoguing where people practice experiencing everyone's point of view fully, equally and non-judgmentally in order to reach common understanding.
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Bohm felt that open dialogue could help us solve the many crises that face society and expand human consciousness. Indeed, in a world where polarized, fear and domination-based communication is the norm, Bohm dialogue gives us a simple structure to elevate the way we relate to ourselves, each other and the world, preparing the ground for deeper learning, connection and collaboration.