The Power of Apology

Relationship Education and Therapeutic Group Work frequently focuses on developing communication and conflict management skills. But as Group Facilitators, we have often had limited training to enable participants to experience healing in their ongoing relationships, when core attitudes and actions of their loved ones cut into their souls and deeply wound them.

This workshop is a meaningful and personally enriching one, created for YOU, the Facilitator! Heather will guide you on your own personal exploratory journey so that by the end of the 2-days you will be equipped to utilise these powerful exercises with your group work participants.

Two concepts will be discussed to help us discover where our hurts may be coming from. “Soul Wounds” are a way to describe how situations hook into childhood scars or beliefs and we will look at these intense, often unexpected and idiosyncratic reactions in terms of “Emotional Allergies”.

Forgiveness and making sincere apologies are essential ingredients in intimate, casual and professional relationships. ‘Sorry’ certainly DOES seem to be the hardest word!  But often the “sorry” seems to inflame rather than resolve the issue.  A major reason is that we are speaking an apology language that does not seem genuine or sufficient to the offended party. These five Languages of Apology – Expressing Regret, Accepting Responsibility, Making Restitution, Genuine repentance and Requesting forgiveness will be explored and experimented with. Participants will have the opportunity to discover their Language of Apology and work out ways of calibrating their apology so that it is effectively received.

To fully experience the power of genuine apology and forgiveness, a plan and process of forgiveness will be presented to enable those hard, ongoing conflicts and deep hurts to be finally put to rest.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

•  appreciate the relevance and importance of restorative relationship work in group practice.
• understand some theoretical underpinnings and research from leaders in this field (e.g. Gary Chapman and John Gottman’s work).
• utilise powerful healing exercises for themselves and their group participants regarding soul wounds and emotional allergies.
• identify and utilise the 5 key Languages of Apology.
• increase awareness and develop strategies for enabling people to be constructive with themselves and each other when their core attitudes collide.
• develop a plan and process of forgiveness that enables growth and healing within oneself and within close relationships.