The Power of Intimacy - Discovering and Correcting Communication Pitfalls - Featuring Tanya Brakeman
Workshop fee: $25/person. Buy your tickets here.
You may be wondering, "What is in the way?” Consider this…
Often, when we use a word, especially those as hot and touchy as sex, love, intimacy and power, the listener is hearing dozens of other associations and is dealing with all the fears, judgements, suspicions, and emotions that come along with all of those associations.
We have all experienced feelings of violation, where someone else has "taken liberties" by misconstruing the intentions of what we said or by misunderstanding our actions, or where we have fallen into compliance and failed to say no when we should have. We have all had times when we have not felt able to exercise our full freedom to say what we really need to say. Being afraid of being misunderstood or misinterpreted is enough to make us avoid all together the many important, but tender conversations about sex, love, intimacy and power.
In this class we will discover a few vital but often missing elements in our conversations about sex, love, intimacy and power.
We’ll see that with a little consideration and practice you really can say what you do and don’t want quite easily, with an intentional clarity that is less likely to create feelings of violation on both sides.
During this workshop we will:
- Use a very simple, but potent, word exercise showing us how many possible interpretations can be created around one simple word.
- Learn how to see through to the heart of the matter and address the real intention of our communication no matter the possibilities for confusion.
- Learn and practice the difference between "taking liberties" and "exercising freedom" when talking about sex, love, intimacy and power in relationships.
- Use a simple communication consent model of “Interested + Available = Willing” as a demonstration of taking necessary steps to avoid assumptions at each stage of a conversation.
This workshop assumes no previous experience and is appropriate for all genders, all orientations. It's completely appropriate to come with solo or with a partner or friend.