This workshop will present mental health practitioners with a conflict mediation approach that can help them work with the sense of otherness both in themselves and with their clients. This workshop will be both didactic and experiential.

In the wake of the pandemic and recent racial, political, and economic upheaval in our country, this approach addresses practitioners’ work and lives. Drawing from his new book The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing, Kirk Schneider, along with colleague Bob Edelstein, will demonstrate this new conflict mediation approach–titled the “Experiential Democracy Dialogue.” The Experiential Democracy Dialogue provides a supportive, highly structured format that invites people from contrasting cultural and ideological backgrounds to learn about and understand each other, rather than automatically being closed to each other’s point of view. The upshot of the approach is that it can notably improve people’s capacities to humanize each other and to achieve common ground. For practitioners specifically, it can enhance capabilities to be more present, both within oneself and with one’s clients, which is foundational to effective practice. The approach can also help practitioners to work with the divisiveness within themselves in regards to the polarized issues in society, which in turn may help with their work with their clients.

Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic/integrative psychology. Dr. Schneider is a cofounder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute. He is a past president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the APA, and is a current candidate for president of the APA. He is also a moderator for Braver Angels and an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Schneider has published over 200 articles, interviews and chapters and has authored or edited 13 books including his latest book, The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing,

Bob Edelstein, LMFT, MFT, is an Existential-Humanistic psychotherapist with over forty-five years of experience. He provides consultation, supervision, workshops, and trainings for clinicians and students. He is a blogger for Psychology Today and has published articles on the existential-humanistic perspective, including a chapter entitled Frames, Attitudes, and Skills of an Existential Humanistic Psychotherapist in the Handbook of Humanistic Psychology 2nd Edition. Bob is the founder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Northwest professional organization.