Pop-Up Facilitation: Deep Democracy Conflict Cafe in everyday life, roles and dreams

Registration here: https://forms.gle/cfY3vpg5PYp1QCJz6

Conflict doesn’t wait for the right moment. It shows up at the kitchen table, in the team meeting, in body symptoms, relationship hesitations and irritations, and in the dream you woke from at 3am. It’s already in motion — in the body, between people, in the field around us.

Conflict is everywhere. In our world. Our Institutions and communities. Between us. Our families and relationships. In our Inner dilemmas, our dreams, our bodies. We know the cost. Many of us have gathered wisdom, tools and reflexes along the way to deal with conflict. And yet theories and learned skills are often inadequate for dealing with an impossible mess when our survival reflexes override access to our beloved theories and skills in the here and now.  

What if we could turn our conflict messes into gold as an everyday habit, and get closer to what makes us truly happy, using who we are and following exactly what is already happening?

In this three-day seminar we liken facilitating conflict to a pop-up café — a freshly ground triple espresso or a calming chamomile tea, depending on who you are and how you show up, in the middle of all of it.

We draw from the roots of Process Work in the lineage of Arnold Mindell and the applied approaches of Max and Ellen Schupbach, and apply in the moment.

How?

Using the Deep Democracy Group Process Cycle stations as prompts, we develop new awareness reflexes that become more accessible in moments of stress and confusion and, can over-ride survival de-fault reflexes in moments when they block our inner facilitator from being present.

This experiential workshop introduces a paradoxical conflict alchemy using three types of power, in the spirit of the medieval alchemists who fired up raw metals and allowed the heat to transform them into gold. We’ll work with three types of conflict power:

1. Social (contextual) power – systemic influences, social norms, entitlement and victim identities (contextual): Raw metals. 

2. Relational (subjective) power – the ability to roll between diverse perspectives, each side expresses itself fully, over time a shift in viewpoint: Applying heat.

3. Essence (field) power – a moment dropping into essence and a momentary one-ness where new, surprising insights and solutions spontaneously pop up: Gold

Learning format:

The learning approach includes short presentations, thought experiments, exercise demonstrations and practice in pairs, as well as discussion in the large group. The purpose of exercises is not to copy a program, but to begin to set a new pattern and reflex as the beginning of a habit that you can access when under stress and pressure:

• learn to notice tiny signals that appear before a conflict fully appears;
• become more friendly with your long-term conflicts you don’t want to touch;
• and learn skills to address tensions/conflicts you wish you could address but don’t yet know how.

We’ll practice the awareness moves that become available when we shift from managing conflict to facilitating ourselves in the midst of conflict.

This seminar is experiential education.

How the three days work:

Days 1 and 2 focus on building skills, attitudes and practices.

Day 1: Get to know your internal encoding as your unique way to travel though conflicts

Learn to recognise the phase a conflict is in, and tailor interventions/including the option of doing nothing…. accordingly

Practice in a friendly atmosphere with an attitude: we are all in the same boat – today you, tomorrow me

Day 2 

The other side of power – how conflict provides a ready made energy point for unlocking personal power and creativity when stuck in stressful and immovable situations.

Day 3 is a practice day for everyone — working live, with support and guidance, to hone your own area of facilitation interest, in the middle, in pop-up café style.

Day 1+2 is training style. Day 3 is a practice day. Day 3 is for anyone who attended Day 1+Day 2, and is also open as a standalone for Processwork students/practitioners.  

For those who like to read beforehand: The Leader as Martial Artist and The Leader’s 2nd Training, both by Arnold Mindell, are companions to this seminar.

For facilitators, coaches, educators, conflict resolvers, leaders, therapists, and curious humans. Process Work background welcome but not required.

What to expect: experiential exercises, short theoretical presentations to illuminate the experiential aspects, small and large group interactions

Venue: Rudolf Steiner University College, Professor Dahls Gate 30, Oslo — a cool village atmosphere with plenty of accommodation options, cafes and eating places nearby.

Morning and afternoon refreshments provided

Registration: Register below. full three days, or first two seminar days only.

Oslo, Norway · October 24–26, 2026