Bio:

Benâ Gül Peker has worked at the Middle East Technical University, Bilkent University and  Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. She has been involved in the writing of the 2006 new primary English curriculum and course books Her professional interests include educational change,  methodology, NLP and  drama. She is  an NLP trainer.

Title and Abstract of the Talk:

Understanding Our Communication Strategies:  Virginia Satir’s “Secrets”

“The problem is never the problem. It is our coping with the problem that is the problem”. Virginia Satir

Why is it that the communication between people confronted with the same circumstances may engender entirely different consequences in communication? Is it because some people are just lucky? Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) tells us that it is not an issue of luck but that it is closely related to how we respond to a situation with conscious awareness.This workshop will focus on the five communication styles by Virginia Satir,  one of the three successful therapists modeled by the originators of NLP. Four of these styles are actually coping strategies, those that we use when we when we are under stress or feel threatened.  Leveling, the fifth strategy is a style of communication that we can engage in when we are open to each other, listen and share from a place of caring and honesty. It can enable us to feel validated as separateindividuals and at the same time feel connected in our humanness. That is to say, once we become aware of the kind of communication that we are capable of, we can  us let go of roles or old ways of interacting which are no longer useful to us. Understanding Virginia Satir’s “secrets” can be a great help in our communication whether we are dealing with learners, teacher candidates or teachers.