Personal Growth and Development

The Art of Speaking So Others Will Understand

In this introductory workshop participants are introduced to the essential speaking and listening skills that allow people to really communicate within inter-personal relationships. The skills learned can be easily applied to a relationship resulting in more confidence, clarity and understanding. The skills presented in this workshop provide a strong foundation for future skill building related to conflict resolution, parenting, intimate relationships and other related topics.

Nurturing a Strong Family

This experience aims to give families a chance to play, explore and learn together! Through a series of experiential challenges the family has a chance to learn about the value of strong communication, problem solving,
positive affirmation, and trust. This program can be adapted to focus on a specific healing or learning goal, or simply used as a positive recreational activity! Either way it will be an experience the whole family will enjoy!

Nurturing a Strong Relationship

Personal relationships are perhaps some of the most challenging yet most rewarding relationships we can invest ourselves in. Couples will participate in experiences and hands-on challenges geared towards strengthening specific aspects of their partnership. This experience will provide fun, enlightening and invaluable support to any relationship. The teachings received will equip participants with practical and relevant information they can apply to their lives- immediately!

Parenting Empowerment Workshop : Learning Ways to Prevent Child Abuse

This workshop will help parents deepen their empathy for the feelings of children by exploring the emotional, physical, spiritual and mental needs of youth between the ages of 0-10 years. Participants will examine how various types of parenting approaches impact their child and how practicing empathic and attachment type parenting techniques can nurture their child and help prevent negative patterns of parenting. This experiential and hands-on workshop is designed to assist parents who have struggled with parenting without the use of anger and violence. This experience will introduce parents to some practical and empowering parenting strategies that can help prevent child abuse from re-occurring.

Peace by Peace : Helping Families Rebuild from the Impacts of Violence

Violence in the home causes physical, emotional, mental and spiritual harm for all members of the family. It breaks down trust and security leaving people feeling powerless, abandoned, and scared. This workshop will explore the impacts that violence has on the family unit and offer some practical ways for a family to begin healing together. This experiential and interactive workshop will provide participants with some very useful things they can begin doing with their families today in order to build a healthy and peaceful home for the future. This experience will allow participants to examine the difficult topic of violence in the home in an enjoyable, interactive and non-judgmental way.

Healing Through Creativity

Through the medium of creative expression participants will be led through a series of reflective, creative and expressive exercises that move them towards greater understanding of their place in life as it relates to emotional hurt and trauma. The focus of the workshop and the creative projects will be customized to meet the specific needs of the participants, as determined through our pre-workshop questionnaire. While each workshop is unique, some of the topics most often requested include loss of a loved one, healing from abuse and family breakdown.

Establishing Healthy Boundaries

In this workshop participants are led through a series of explorative exercises that produce insight into human needs and the resulting behaviour. This essential foundation leads to specific exploration of what boundaries are, how to set them and how to respond in situations of violation. Personal reflection, assertiveness training, discussion, role play, and group exercises will help participants identify areas of their life that require stronger boundaries. The establishment of healthy personal boundaries will also be related to the experience of increased self-esteem and sense of well-being which is so often desired by people who have had the experience of feeling like a victim. Best presented in a multi-day format, this workshop allows participants to understand the cycle of self-understanding, boundary setting, and self esteem.

Core Identity Needs

In this workshop participants are led through a series of explorative exercises that produce insight into human needs and the resulting behaviour. This essential foundation leads to specific exploration of what boundaries are, how to set them and how to respond in situations of violation. Personal reflection, assertiveness training, discussion, role play, and group exercises will help participants identify areas of their life that require stronger boundaries. The establishment of healthy personal boundaries will also be related to the experience of increased self-esteem and sense of well-being which is so often desired by people who have had the experience of feeling like a victim. Best presented in a multi-day format, this workshop allows participants to understand the cycle of self-understanding, boundary setting, and self esteem.

Purpose Driven Living

The focus of this workshop is helping people discover their personal talents, passion and skills and how they might use those to meet a need they see in their world. They will be given the opportunity to explore some of their interests through experiences, group discussion and challenging group initiatives. This experience will not only be empowering and inspirational but also life changing!

"Thank you for helping me with my New Years Resolution. You gave me tools I need to fulfill it!"
- Candice Goretzki - Family Support Worker, Nishnawbe-Gamik Friendship Centre

The Flip Side of Conflict!

For most people conflict is considered a bad thing- a sign of failure, dysfunction or irreconcilable differences. This perspective leads to the unnecessary breakdown of so many valuable relationships. This experiential workshop series will lead people through a process that will help them better understand the natural stages relationships go through as well as the root causes of conflict. They will be equipped with strategies to work through those stages in a way that strengthens relationships and minimizes unproductive conflict. Once they have the chance to gain a new perspective on conflict they will be introduced to problem solving strategies, assertive communication and mediation techniques that can easily be used within social, work or family situations. Participants should be prepared for physical activity, group discussion, problem solving, and role plays!

Working Through Grief and Loss

Grief can result from a variety of different experiences including the loss of a loved one, the loss of innocence, and the shattering of hopes and dreams. These experiences will use a participant centred approach to gently support people as they experience the many complicated phases of the grief process. Artistic expression and the use of nature will be two of the main paths taken to support participants as they work through the process of acknowledging the many feelings and emotions attached to their experience. It is important to note that these experiences are not designed to replace any current mental health support the client is receiving but rather complement it. These experiences are meant to be clarifying and calming, allowing participants to move one step closer to finding peace with their loss.

"I enjoyed learning more on grief. I was shown that my past experiences and emotions were part of Grieving. I'm glad I was made aware of this. It helped me out a lot."
- O-Shkee Meekena Youth Healing Centre, Tikinagan Child and Family Services, Cat Lake First Nation