Family Communication & Conflict Resolution Workshop

Group Type: Skill-Building Workshop

Goals of the Group:

• Enhance family communication
• Resolve conflicts
• Foster emotional well-being
• Strengthen family bonds
• Create a supportive environment

Who Is The Group For?

• Parents & Guardians
  • Wanting to strengthen bonds and improve communication with their children
• Siblings & Family Members
  • Looking to resolve conflicts and foster understanding at home
• Conflict-Resolution Seekers
  • Eager to learn practical skills for healthy communication and emotional awareness
• Change-Minded Family Members
  • Motivated to improve family dynamics

Glimpse of the Session:

Week 1: Understanding Family Dynamics & Common Patterns

• Introduction to Family system
• Understanding Family systems-Bowen Theory
• Discussing about the different yet common family system patterns
• Discussing roles we take up as individuals in each pattern: Rebel, caretaker, mediator, rescuer etc
• Exercises:
  • Generational Map
  • Identify your role in the family & if you carry it forward in other equations
  • Breakout discussions on current challenges faced in family communication
• Action step: Each participant will identify one recurring communication pattern they want to improve and create a goal for the coming weeks

Week 2: Conflict resolution using Healthy Communication

• Understanding conflict and its internal and environmental triggers
• Learning techniques to resolve conflicts harmoniously
• Identifying the pillars of healthy communication
• Practicing active listening + ‘I statements’ versus the blame game
• Exercises:
  • Role play between active listening and venting
  • Role play undertaken to practice ‘I statements’
  • Role play using the pillars of communication in a healthy way while communicating
• Action step: Participants will implement one conflict resolution technique in their family context during the week and report back

Week 3: Emotional awareness for Conflict Resolution

• Identifying and expressing emotions clearly
• Learning to practice empathy + looking at the same situation from a different perspective during conflict
• Identifying unhealthy patterns & break them via alternatives
• Exercises:
  • Discussing an emotion you felt strongly connected with your family interaction and how did you express or not express it?
  • What core emotions did you feel and what would your family member have felt?
  • Trying to see the situation of conflict from a different perspective
  • Learning to hold boundaries or setting them to facilitate healthy conversation
• Action step: Participants will try and see the conflict from a different perspective + convey the same by implementing an empathy statement in a real family interaction & try and set a boundary

Week 4: Moving forward via Healthy Boundaries

• Understanding what are boundaries & how to maintain them without feeling guilty
• Difference between weak and strong boundaries
• How they strengthen family bonds and help families function healthily
• Exercises:
  • Boundary mapping
  • Role play for setting boundaries & accepting them
  • Exercise to reinforce that boundaries are good
  • Family goal exercise + active commitment towards it
  • Concluding with mindfulness deep breathing visualization exercise
• Action step: One boundary you plan to maintain now and have an accountability partner for the same that will help you do so