My work involves bridging the ideal and the practical, helping people and organizations live more fully into their values and their mission in tangible ways.

I love to hold space for people to clarify their purpose and hopes as they move toward living/acting in different ways. Growth and change happen when people come together in a space to encourage and respectfully challenge one another.

My collaborative approach to facilitation almost always involves co-facilitating workshops with another person. Every group of people holds wisdom, and I believe the facilitator’s job is to harvest that wisdom and help people put it to use in the world.

Harvesting wisdom does not necessarily mean consensus is reached. Sometimes hard conversations are simply about clarifying one’s beliefs, being able to withstand the challenge of listening to others who don’t share those beliefs, and being open to the possibility of changing your mind.

Some of the settings in which I have facilitated challenging conversations:

• In churches about a proposed abortion ban in South Dakota
• In churches about the proposed Constitutional Amendment to ban same sex marriage in Minnesota
• Teaching sexuality education with young people and their parents in United Church of Christ Congregations using the Our Whole Lives curriculum.
• Co-convening a conversation for white people about racism using the book me and white supremacy by Layla F. Saad

I am trained in ToP Facilitation Methods.

Most of the time, I work with small groups to integrate reflection, prayer and writing practices into daily life in meaningful ways. Right now, most of my workshops are hosted through Wood & Water Retreats.

SOME OF THE WORKSHOPS I HAVE FACILITATED

• Grief Teaches us What We Love (a retreat for the ministers of Volunteers of America-MN)
• All Write: A Month-Long Writing Structure and Support Group (with Rachel Twigg)
• Writing Together: Four Weeks of Support and Structure (with Kami Pohl)
• Living with the Word: A Month Praying with Scripture (with Sam Rahberg)
• Unlearning Racism as a Spiritual Practice (with Eily Marlow)
• Real Lament and Gritty Hope (with Sam Rahberg)
• Living with Uncertainty (with Eily Marlow)
• Finding Your Yeses for This Year (with Sam Rahberg)
• Being Real: Practicing Authenticity, Courage and Humility in Everyday Life (with Eily Marlow)
• Reclaiming Darkness as Essential to the Spiritual Life (with Eily Marlow)
• Com-Panions: Do This in Remembrance of Me (with Jim Bartol and Victoria Fritz)
• Of the Garden: Serving and Reflecting at Farm and Foodshelf (with Winnie Williams and Chris James)
• Taste and See That the Lord is Good: A Celebration of Food and Community (with the Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery)

Please contact me to explore a workshop or conversation in your setting.