Radical Honesty for Conflict Transformation

Conflict transformation in non-formal education, community organizing and advocacy often runs against deeply entrenched divisions, stereotypes and unidimensional worldviews which prevent genuine connection and exchange of ideas and experiences, as well as their modification.

Unequipped with awareness and skills to recognize our own needs and wants, as well as communicate our lived experience honestly and effectively, we instead suppress ourselves and rely on manipulation, lies and moralizing to get others to do what we want. On both individual and political level, these tactics escalate violence and alienation instead of preventing conflict.

Knowledge about and awareness of social issues alone are not sufficient to mobilize support across political and ideological divides and lead to sustainable collective action. When we do not attend to the emotional pains underlying any given perspective, we lose the opportunity to transform suffering into constructive learning, authentic empathy and empowered agency.

In order to support our communities to transform conflict and find sustainable solutions to the problems they face, as social workers and community leaders we need to build our skills to facilitate individual and collective healing, and expand our capacity to connect, collaborate and sustain togetherness.

What is Radical Honesty?

Radical Honesty is an awareness practice and a body-based approach. It is about communicating directly by reporting out loud what you notice in front of you, in your body, and in your mind in the present moment. Through practicing Radical Honesty we learn to access all of our emotions, and experience them fully in order to reclaim our energy and aliveness and prevent getting stuck in conflict, whether internal or external.

Radical Honesty is not brutal, extreme, or non-stop honesty. We practice Radical Honesty to better connect with others, discover intimacy that doesn’t require manipulation, emotional suppression, lying or hiding, and as a way to find creative solutions to conflicts and problems, and have fun!

Program Goals

We invite you to join us in exploring and growing our power to turn conflict into connection through the courageous acts of vulnerable sharing and allowing ourselves to fully experience whatever is. We practice Radical Honesty with commitment to stay in contact, and maintain respectful acceptance of different experiences and realities. 

In this intensive experiential program, we will practice Radical Honesty in order to:

• Develop skills in telling the truth and being without filters
• Connect to ourselves and others in a deep, honest, and compassionate way
• Attune to our body senses and express whatever arises in the moment: excitement, attraction, anger, fear, etc.
• Experience being fully present and grounded in the moment
• Practice asking for what we want in a direct, non-manipulative way
• Expand our awareness and reclaim our energy, aliveness and sense of purpose
• Apply Radical Honesty as a tool for Conflict Transformation in our communities
• Lead others towards emotional resilience, healing and solidarity. 

Expected learning outcomes:

• Being completely and compassionately honest
• Letting go of shame, fear, and attachment to approval
• Feeling our bodies and expanding bodily awareness
• Being at ease with the uncomfortable - expanding our comfort zones
• Asking for everything we want; expanding our ability to give & receive
• Getting over anger, guilt, and obsessive thinking
• Healing relationships and experiencing whole-body forgiveness
• Living out loud - laughing, crying, yelling, smiling, and completely changing our lives.
• Enhancing and enriching our leadership, communication and conflict transformation skill sets.

Infopack Link: shorturl.at/agz08