Dealing with the normal stress of the holidays can be enough to handle. Then add those annoyances and disruptions you have to deal with in your neighborhood…loud holiday parties, cars blocking roads and your driveway, those bright holiday lights and decorations. All invading your peace and quiet. The holidays can bring people together just as equally as they can erupt into full blown holiday mayhem. Conflict coaching experts, Pattie Porter and Stephen Kotev, will discuss strategies to keep neighbor conflict at bay and help you manage your triggers to those nuisances you cannot control.

Pattie Porter, LCSW, AAP is the President of Conflict Connections®, Inc. in San Antonio, TX. Pattie has worked extensively in the dispute resolution field for nearly 20 years providing mediation, team facilitation, negotiation training, and conflict management and abrasive leader coaching services to individuals, businesses, government agencies and higher education institutions. Pattie is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and holds the Advanced Practitioner-Workplace Mediator (AAP) designation from the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), the Credentialed Distinguished Mediator from the Texas Mediator Credentialing Association, and the CINERGY® certified advanced conflict coach and coach-mentor as recognized by the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is currently working on her accreditation from The Boss Whispering Institute®. She is a current faculty member in the graduate dispute resolution program at Southern Methodist University in Plano, Texas.

Stephen Kotev is a Washington D.C. based conflict resolution consultant offering mediation, negotiation, conflict analysis, facilitation, training and somatic education to private and government clients. He holds a Master of Science degree from George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and a black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. He is a former employee of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Resolution and the D.C. Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency as an ADR Specialist.