Overview of a practical conflict resolution model, with application to disputes arising in the context of the climate crisis.
Note. Spaces are limited so please cancel your order if you CANNOT ATTEND. You can do this by going to ‘cancel my order’ when you click on ‘go to my tickets’ from the confirmation email or you can email psychs4peace@gmail.com.
This interactive online workshop will be useful for anyone interested in enhancing their skills for resolving conflict constructively, at the interpersonal, intergroup or community levels. We will show participants how to identify the relevant parties in a conflict, the issues involved, the positions taken by each party, the interests underlying these positions, and how to build win-win solutions and address challenges to the process.
Climate change can create conflicts at many levels (Sanson, Wertheim & Freeman, 2021). Examples of such conflicts will be used to illustrate the conflict resolution process. Individuals and groups who are working to address the climate crisis will therefore find the workshop useful in developing their understanding and skills for approaching similar conflicts, whether they are family-focussed, within groups, or between broader groups in society.
*The workshop will be interactive and include smaller group discussions to apply the concepts to relevant disputes, so please be prepared to contribute to discussions.
The workshop will be facilitated by members and affiliates of Psychologists for Peace, including:
Dr. Eleanor Wertheim, Emeritus Professor, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, is the author of Skills for Resolving Conflict (Wertheim, Love, Peck and Littlefield, 2006). She has a long history of teaching and researching conflict resolution concepts and skills at university and community levels, with a focus on addressing both interpersonal and community- level disputes. For over 25 years she has also been a consultant to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Geneva, offering programme facilitation and training to UN staff and international diplomats in negotiation and mediation processes.
Dr Susie Burke, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Queensland. Susie is a psychologist, therapist and climate activist with a special interest in the role that psychology plays in helping us understand the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change. She is the co-author of the Climate Change Empowerment Handbook published by the Australian Psychological Society. She works in private practice, consulting to organisations, and running workshops and individual sessions to help people come to terms with climate change. She has assisted Eleanor Wertheim in her conflict resolution and negotiation courses at the La Trobe School of Law and Legal Studies and regularly consults as a mediator and group facilitator for groups using interest-based conflict resolution techniques.
Other workshop developers and facilitators include education providers, psychologists, peace psychology researchers, authors and speakers with an interest in promoting peace and conflict resolution processes as well as addressing climate change.
References
• Sanson, A., Wertheim, E. H., & Freeman, E. (2021). Psychology and the climate crisis: Advancing peace, security and justice. InPsych, 43 (4), https://psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2021/november-issue-4/psychology-and-the-climate-crisis-advancing-peace,
• Wertheim, E. H., Love, A., Peck, C. & Littlefield, L. (Wertheim, E. H., Love, A., Peck, C., & Littlefield, L. (2006). Skills for resolving conflict: Creating effective solutions through co-operative problem solving (2nd edition). Melbourne, Victoria: Eruditions.
