Languages
Where
Types of Methods
Working with
• Groups, teams and organisations
Leon Berg is a founding member of the Ojai Foundation, now called the Topa Institute (www.topa.institute), an educational sanctuary in Southern California. He is a Senior Trainer of the Way of Council, and has been facilitating Council groups in the U.S. and abroad for over 25 years. Together with his life partner, Glori Zeltzer, he teaches the Art of Intimate Conversation to couples (www.tools-for-togetherness.com). His TEDx talk, The Power of Listening, is linked below.
Reading Jem Bendell’s paper and spending two months in Jordan and Israel in Nov/Dec 2019, he became convinced that at the root of our challenges are healing our relationships with each other and the natural world. That it was our accumulated habits of separation that have led us to the precipice of catastrophe. And then the coronavirus hit. As a result he teamed up with long time colleague, Lori Austen (link), to co-create Circles of Resilience.
Circles of Resilience is based on the ancient way of being together and learning from each other before books and YouTube, when our pre-literate ancestors would sit around the fire and tell/listen to stories. Here we learned the skills of resilience: how to connect, how to co-regulate and how to collaborate. Circles of Resilience uses the dialogical practice of council that creates a safe container to hold space for deep listening, at times, even with a broken heart. The practice creates heart connection with others, which is itself a resource of resilience. Circles of Resilience supports community building arising out of mutual rapport and respect. It cultivates authentic expression, the grief, and the joy.
As we move into an era of pandemics and other environmental crises, as we move toward social and economic collapse, as mental health is compromised, we need each other. For those who are alone, the isolation can be harmful to the nervous system and the body’s experience encourages negativity bias. The opportunity to connect through the online listening practice of Circles of Resilience is an opportunity to co-regulate each other’s physiological and emotional state and deeply listen to each other. We then feel safer and become more generous with others, more accessible. With compassion, we tend to the emerging reality. We grieve what’s been lost, we let go of what no longer serves, we reclaim, renew and re-imagine what is possible. We reconcile with all of our relations.
When we listen to people, our language softens. Listening may be the cardinal act of giving… it is the source of peace. ~ Paul Hawken
Offers from this Guide to You
This is a new section and many guides have not yet had the opportunity to add offers.
Methods this Guide uses
Therapy, Psychotherapy, Counselling
‘Therapy’ is a broad church with many academic and practical variations, and for this reason, any si …
Circles of Resilience
Circles of Resilience is based on the ancient way of being together and learning from each other bef …
Nature Connection Practices
Environmental and Social collapse calls us to question our relationship to nature and the biosphere. …
Community Building
Guides who link to this method will offer community building skills which help foster a collect …
Meditation
Definitions and practices of meditation vary widely, across cultures and traditions. Meditatio …