Tending to the Roots of Conflict in a Divided World

Deepen your capacity to unearth and tend to the unconscious beliefs, protective patterns, and survival strategies at the root of conflict, division, dehumanization, and polarization.

Taught by Lena Papadopoulos

Live Online8 sessions x 120 min

Course Overview

Most approaches to conflict and systemic harm focus on the external, without addressing the deeper fears and desires that keep these larger patterns in place.

Through a trauma-informed process of guided self-inquiry and embodied exploration, participants in this course will gain a personally transformative, in-depth understanding of how self-suppression sustains the oppressive systems that shape our personal and collective realities.

By illuminating how these hidden patterns shape your sense of self, your relationships with others, and the wider web we all belong to, you will gain invaluable insights into what *really* drives conflict while building your capacity to address the roots of division in your life and in our world.

Civil rights activist James Baldwin said, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hatred so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” Unless we learn how to confront that pain, we'll only create more of the same.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for heart-centered, purpose-driven peacebuilding practitioners, humanitarians, educators, cross-cultural mediators, bridge-builders, activists, creatives, changemakers, and movement leaders.

What You'll Learn

Unearth unconscious beliefs and patterns that perpetuate division and dehumanization
Identify how internalized oppression operates in your life and leadership—and how it sustains larger systems of harm
Develop embodied awareness of how conflict and survival responses live in your body, and learn practices to regulate and shift them
Expand your capacity for bridge-building across differences by first bridging within yourself
Engage conflict with greater emotional depth, accountability, and relational awareness
Translate personal awareness into context-sensitive approaches for facilitating dialogue, repair, or reconciliation on a wider scale

What's Included

Live Sessions

Interactive classes with your instructor

Session Recordings

Lifetime access to all recordings

Community Access

Connect with fellow learners

Certificate

Proof of course completion

Real-World Project

Participants will create a final integration artifact that bridges personal insight with collective understanding and application. Through a medium of their choice (e.g., written essay, audio recording, social media / blog post, etc), participants will explore a previously suppressed or hidden aspect of themselves and examine how it shapes: *Their internal experience (beliefs, emotional patterns, protective behaviors) *Their relationships (communication, conflict, disconnection, or repair) *Their understanding of larger systems (how this pattern shows up in collective dynamics around power, oppression, or polarization) In addition, each participant will identify and share how they intend to interrupt or work with this pattern in their own life and leadership, as well as why that matters for the world they are committed to creating.

About the Instructor

Lena Papadopoulos

Award-winning educator and leadership coach working at the intersection of personal and collective liberation

As a first-generation Greek-American with a family history of genocide and displacement, my graduate research centered on the role of religion and national identity in war and conflict. I spent 15 years working at the intersections of global citizenship education, leadership development, and cross-cultural community building. Over time, I came to see that the divisions between us reflect the disconnect within us. The work I do now addresses that disconnection first, because we can’t dismantle oppressive systems outside of us without confronting how they’ve taken root within us. My approach is human-centered, trauma-informed, and reflects a unique blend of my background in sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, intercultural education, leadership development, life coaching, and somatic trauma resolution. I’ve been recognized for my commitment to personalized experiences and successful efforts in humanizing communities.

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Format

Live Online

Class Size

15 students max

Sessions

8 sessions

Duration

120 min each

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