In 2020, this course had to be canceled due to the corona situation. We are pleased to offer a new possibility in 2021.

This is a unique course; it doesn’t resemble any other training with a similar name. It builds on experience-based, exploratory, and deepening group processes. Twice every day, participants meet in small communication groups of six to nine people led by one or two facilitators. The agenda is open, and a wide range of moods and emotions are activated. The interaction between the participants initiates surprising group processes that reveal hitherto unconscious patterns in the ways we see and deal with each other. Personal reflection brings unexpected insights about how we are driven by feelings we didn’t even know we had.

The course is an opportunity to get new experiences in interaction with others. Emil Aarseth put it this way: “I’ve taken the opportunity to practice how I can be more direct with others. I’ve never done that before to the same extent. In addition, I got a lot of training in how to listen to others—to understand what lies behind the words and between the lines, not always taking what people say at face value.”  Read more about his experiences.

For Siri Bergan, clear and direct feedback gave her a wake-up call. The course became a formative experience: “It helped me to see and verbalize many of my repetitive patterns, both in group contexts and in one-on-one relations. I even began to look into the formative experiences that underlie some of the important choices in my life—both what I have chosen to do and what I have tended to avoid doing.” Read more about her experiences.

Doing practical work together is another important part of the course: doing chores in the kitchen, working outside on the property, preparing for social events, and a number of other tasks. Emil says: “We couldn’t just turn off the process. It was extremely intensive!” In this context, the tasks provided more variety to the program. They became opportunities for self-observation and feedback from others: Who takes a leading role, and who prefers to follow the others? Who makes a real contribution, and who tends to take this as an opportunity to relax or to protest?

In addition to the facilitated groups, there are also groups that are more thematically structured, less open-ended. The participants interview each other about central life issues, score each other along various parameters, and present themselves or each other in front of the rest of the group. This results in a close-knit group and provides a lot of input to the facilitated groups.

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