I design and facilitate a wide range of workshops and retreats, all tailored to your organization's specific context and desired outcomes. My offerings include Enneagram workshops for team building and communication, emotional intelligence development, navigating important conversations, building psychological safety, exploring power and privilege, leadership presence and self-awareness, and trust-building exercises.

My customization process begins with understanding your team's current dynamics, challenges, and goals through pre-session conversations with key stakeholders. I adapt content, activities, and even my facilitation style to match your organizational culture, industry context, and the specific mix of personalities and experience levels in the room. For example, a workshop for a tech startup will look very different from one for a nonprofit board, even if the core learning objectives are similar.

What remains constant is my commitment to creating experiential learning opportunities where participants don't just understand concepts intellectually but practice and embody new skills in real-time.

My facilitation style is grounded in Gestalt principles—I work with what's alive in the room in the present moment while maintaining a clear container for learning and growth. I create psychological safety by being genuinely curious about different perspectives and holding space for authentic expression, even when it's uncomfortable.

For team-building, I focus on increasing self-awareness and mutual understanding rather than forced bonding activities. I help teams explore their individual and collective strengths, understand their communication differences, and develop practices for more effective collaboration. My approach emphasizes real conversations about how the team actually works together, not just how they wish they worked together.

When conflict arises—either pre-existing tensions or what emerges during our session—I lean into it rather than avoiding it. I help teams explore different perspectives with curiosity, identify underlying needs that aren't being met, and find creative solutions that honor the wisdom in the conflict. My experience has taught me that skillfully navigating conflict often leads to breakthrough moments in team cohesion and trust.

Yes, I offer both virtual and hybrid facilitation options that can be just as engaging and effective as in-person sessions. I've adapted my experiential approach to work well in virtual environments, using breakout rooms, interactive tools, and creative engagement techniques to maintain energy and connection throughout the session.

I absolutely facilitate board retreats and governance sessions, drawing on my experience working with boards and senior leadership teams across multiple sectors. These sessions often focus on strategic visioning, board effectiveness, governance best practices, leadership/board succession planning, or addressing specific organizational challenges. My background in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership gives me particular insight into board dynamics and the unique challenges that boards face.

Whether virtual or in-person, I work closely with board chairs or executive leadership to design sessions that balance relationship-building with substantive work on governance priorities. My goal is to create sessions that strengthen both the board's effectiveness and their sense of collective purpose.

Case Study: CHIC Team Retreat in Istanbul, 2024 - Building Trust and Cohesion

Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC) is a fast-growing global health organization with distributed team members spanning multiple continents and cultural backgrounds. As CHIC entered a significant growth phase, the Founder & CEO engaged me to facilitate sessions during their annual three-day retreat focused on strengthening team dynamics and cross-cultural collaboration.

The Challenge This diverse team of 12 professionals working remotely across 3 continents needed to build deeper trust and team cohesion.

The Approach I designed an interactive program combining the Conscious Leadership Group's self-awareness & personal accountability principles, Charles Feltman's 4 Components of Trust model, Erin Meyer's Culture Map framework for cross-cultural dynamics, and leading research on psychological safety – the # predictor of team success according to Google study – as the foundation for team success.

The Process Across three half-day sessions, team members engaged in self-reflection exercises, small group brainstorming, sharing of personality type assessment, cultural mapping activities, and group brainstorming & action planning using real scenarios they were facing.

The Results Participants gained practical tools for bridging cultural differences and building sustainable trust. Team members reported significantly improved connection and psychological safety, with several noting greater comfort in bringing up challenges and different perspectives. Each person also made a specific commitment to implement practices for personal accountability and stronger communication.

Case Study: First Place for Youth Workshop Series - Building Manager Capacity for Difficult Conversations and Emotional Intelligence

First Place for Youth is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping foster youth transition to stable adulthood. Recognizing the emotional demands of their work with vulnerable youth and the need for strong interpersonal skills among their Program Managers, First Place for Youth engaged me to facilitate several workshops focused on essential leadership competencies.

The Challenge Program Managers at First Place for Youth needed practical tools to navigate the inherent challenges of their roles. Most of these managers had were recently promoted staff who are new to managing people. Additionally, the demands of the work and the challenges faced by their end beneficiary clients exacerbated the stress and strain on the team..

The Approach Working with several senior leaders, I designed two workshops to support their team – a two-part series on developing emotional intelligence and an interactive session on navigating difficult conversations.

Workshop 1: Practicing Emotional Intelligence focused on the four core components of emotional intelligence—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. The interactive session emphasized practical tools managers could immediately implement with their teams, including techniques for developing strong self-awareness and emotional granularity, active listening, and asking powerful questions to build confidence and competency.

Workshop 2: Strategies for Difficult Conversations provided a structured roadmap for preparation and reflection, best practices for navigating the conversation, and how to have follow-up check-ins. Participants learned to approach challenging dialogues with confidence and skill rather than avoidance.

Both workshops incorporated interactive elements, including small group discussions, partner practice sessions, and real-scenario applications, ensuring participants could immediately apply new skills to their work environment.

The Results Program Managers gained concrete tools for handling challenging situations with greater confidence and emotional intelligence. Participants reported feeling more prepared to address performance issues constructively, better equipped to manage their own stress responses, and more skilled at creating environments where team members felt heard and supported.

Participants rated the Difficult Conversations training a 4.6/5, appreciating the experiential format, immediately actionable techniques, and the usefulness of the handout. One participant