This year’s Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) national conference features more than 120 speakers on diverse conflict resolution topics in over 75 sessions.  Join more than 400 other conflict resolution practitioners this October in Reno, Nevada from October 7-10.

Here is a brief glimpse of four of the many exciting sessions that are being offered:

The Language of Conflict

Ken Cloke

The language, syntax, metaphors, and narrative assumptions in conflict conversations make it difficult to de-escalate violence, transform debates into dialogues and come to grips with the painful issues that inform our most important conflict resolution choices. It is common to construct stereotypes, moral rationalizations, metaphors, archetypes and false absolutes regarding our opponents to justify our own conflict behaviors. How can we bring a meditative, interest-based sensibility to the language of conflict and turn hostile denunciations and debates into appreciative disagreements and dialogues?

Read more: http://reno.acrnet.org/35

Cross-Cultural Practice of Mediation and Conflict Resolution Traini...

Sharia Walker

This session will describe my experience of the process of ADR in the Saudi setting, and how the local culture is responding to my mediation practice and conflict resolution training from the West. The workshop will explore the intercultural experience, challenges, and lessons learned from the local practices of a type of ADR known as Sulh (literally translated as conciliation, however it is used to symbolize any third party intervention), and the mediation trainings and practices I am conducting. Finally I will analyze how my initial setup of mediation practice and conflict resolution training has further developed as I explore the Saudi cultural context and judicial system.

Read more: http://reno.acrnet.org/36

Transformative Practice with At-Risk Populations: Findings from a P...

Kay Julien, Ph.D.

In recent years, the transformative approach to conflict has been employed as a tool for helping individuals increase their abilities to self-manage in conflict situations. This workshop explores the question of its efficacy and relevance in working with at risk populations who may have diminished capacities for the self awareness required for this relational approach. Findings from a pilot conflict transformation coaching program for female victims of human trafficking transitioning into society provide the basis of the presentation. Challenges and remedies for utilizing the transformative approach in this context will also be examined.

Read more: http://reno.acrnet.org/32

Register for the conference [HERE]