Yesterday was one of the top 5 professional days I’ve had in my entire career! I gave a presentation entitles, “Trama and De-escalation” at Turning Point Recovery Center in Albuquerque, NM and, without ANY doubt, it was the most educative workshop I’ve ever had the privilege of participating in. (The presentation is here: trauma & de-escalation)
The attendees were engaged, from beginning to end, and the dialogue was lively and respectful. Although I the “teacher,” the class actually taught me quite a bit about de-escalation techniques that I hadn’t covered in my presentation. What’s more, even though a couple of attendees weren’t all that comfortable with my approach, the dialogue routed and segued to the next slides just as it was designed to do.
As a critical pedagogist, I believe it’s my role to guide discussion such that everyone within a group learns mutually through dialogue and discussion that’s focused upon the topic at hand. This particular group reminded me why I do what I do and I am grateful and blessed to have had the honor of leading the discussion.
I have to thank Turning Point Recovery, and particularly, Lou Duran and Paul Tucker for inviting me and hosting the workshop. It was a day that set a bar for me — the benchmark, for me, was set yesterday and I am fortunate to be involved with such a great facility!!
