Conflict Transformation 101

Drawing on St Ethelburga’s commitment to reconciliation and building trust across difference, this training is highly experiential and participatory. You’ll move through cycles of learning, group dialogue, pair work, embodied practice, and personal reflection. Together we will explore the forces that pull us into conflict, the values that help us move toward peace, and the biological patterns that shape how each of us responds. You’ll also experience a wide range of interactive methods designed to help you have courageous conversations and immediately put your learning into practice in your everyday conflict contexts.

• Work with our practical models to understand the drivers of conflict and the actions we need to take to transform it.
• Recognise your own biological and emotional responses to conflict, and how to regulate them.
• Understand your own instinctive conflict patterns and how to work with them, not against them.
• Learn and practise Non-Violent Communication (NVC) as a tool for honest, empathetic, and connection-building dialogue.
• Workshop current conflict situations to identify a pathway of transformation.
• Feel more confident in navigating tension with presence, curiosity, courage and imagination.
• Deepen your understanding of what builds peace — in relationships, communities, and systems.
• Connect with a community of practice committed to dialogue, reconciliation, and meaningful change.

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• Frameworks from Dialogue for Peaceful Change
• Non Violent Communication
• St Ethelburga’s 4 stories and values for peacemaking
• John Paul Lederach’s conflict transformation model
• Amanda Ripley’s distinction between good conflict and high conflict
• Nervous system regulation
• Conflict styles and relational dynamics
• Communication skills
• Integration and reflection

You will be guided by experienced facilitators who work at the intersection of dialogue, conflict transformation, and community resilience. The day follows a rhythm of teaching, embodiment, pair and small-group work, reflection, and whole-group sharing. The environment is invitational and spacious, encouraging each participant to share to the degree they feel comfortable, listen generously, and celebrate difference. We will utilise the historic St Ethelburga’s church and Bedouin Tent, rooting our facilitation in our 4 core values.