We Provide Expert Facilitation for Peacemaking through Conflict Inquiry, Restorative Dialogue, and Community Healing

We've sat in the fire many times with families, organizations and other groups of people divided by anger, disagreement, racial tension, hurt, and hopelessness. Using the form of council and drawing on several traditions of restorative justice and peacemaking, our teams facilitate dialogues that are open, frank, and respectful of all voices. 

When everyone knows that they have had a chance to speak their truth and that it has been received, new directions become apparent. We can't guarantee healing or transformation; but time and time again that is what we have witnessed. Our approach emphasizes approaching conflicts with an attitude of curiosity and inquiry, leaning into them to discover what they have to teach us. Often they bring lessons that are crucial and that can liberate us to move into new possibilities.

Peacemaking

Families get stuck in conflict. So do other groups. It happens, it's normal, and it's an opportunity for breakthrough growth. What if the conflict you are in is a gateway to deeper understanding and greater maturity in how you love each other? Peacemaking is a structured and highly supportive way to look deeply into the conflict and discover what treasures are hidden within.

Organizational Development

Using a wide range of tools including council and restorative dialogue, we assist organizations with visioning and re-visioning their direction, passion, and possibilities. We've worked on projects ranging from non-profit start-ups to year long, county-wide planning processes involving many agencies and organizations.

Support for Communities in Crisis

Crises come on unexpectedly and often an immediate response is what is needed. We can assemble skillful teams and place them anywhere globally within very short time frames. For local (San Francisco Bay Area) situations we are available to help and support community healing over the long arc, providing a series of restorative councils over a period of a year or more as needed.

Council Leadership

We are passionate about the practice of council. Council is often the perfect antidote when things seem stuck in chronic conflict and tense relationships. It is a format that can bring together people with a wide variety of views, perspectives, and experiences, and help them share information in a way where everyone is heard and every voice is respected. Often profoundly healing, council has a way of revealing new possibilities and creative options for moving forward.

Restorative Dialogue with the Land

What happens when we sit in council with the more-than-human world of nature? Join us in exploring how we can use council dialogue to reach a new levels of understanding of how we are meant to be in relationship with nature, and what it means to live sustainably.

“Things were broken and I didn’t know how to fix it. My own frustration was in the way. I noticed how cruel the kids were; it confounded me. Then in this project, to hear them voice their own pain… I was so touched; I had never cried in class before. I became more mindful that I don’t know what they walk with. I started allowing myself to see.”

"I thank all of you, students and parents alike, who worked hard to establish understanding and agreements, and address the hurtful and damaging behaviors that took place. It was a time of heightened emotions, so close to graduation. Each one of us, me included, came to a new understanding and I believe that this is the heart of being a human being--how we grow and learn in order to become more effective in the world."

--High School Principal, after a restorative circle