Monitoring and Managing Emotionality During Difficult Dialogues

The purpose of this workshop is to increase attendee’s recognition of and preparation for the potentially triggering content of both formal and informal difficult dialogues. Research shows that both majority and non-majority attendees of such discussions may experience distress related to cognitive dissonance, recognition of one’s own bias, fear of being tokenized, and triggered pain from previous experiences. This emotional state of distress may result in an inability to maintain one’s adherence to established ground rules and contribute to negative outcomes. Therefore, this workshop will examine and explain techniques to manage this emotionality. Those who attend this workshop will learn to summarize and normalize potential distressing reactions related to difficult dialogues and examine techniques to recognize and regulate the somatic and emotional response to difficult dialogue content