What is a Daring Way Intensive?
This past week, a few people asked me the same question about the Daring Way™ workshops I teach and facilitate: “What is an intensive? If I’ve taken one of your classes will it cover the same material?”
Great questions!
First, let me say that workshops, classes and intensives are great ways to take Brené Brown’s teachings and concepts and apply her tools to your own circumstances.
A workshop is built around one, maybe two, topics from the Daring Way™ curriculum. It can have as few as ten participants or as many as fifty. It can be a 30-minute presentation, a morning or an afternoon workshop, a series of evening classes.
Since Daring Way™ facilitators are encouraged and expected to adapt curriculum materials to their professional contexts I can create a workshop around a topic, or, work with a person or committee to design a workshop for their community. A workshop can focus on our personal lives, our professional lives, our spiritual lives, parenting, relationships, the list goes on! Because, my friends as you know, no matter where you go, there you are. We bring our stories of vulnerability, shame, courage with us everywhere and they influence…EVERYTHING!
An intensive is different. For one thing, as the name implies it is more intense. The Daring Way™ curricula is based on two of Brené Brown’s books Daring Greatly and Rising Strong. And an intensive follows the entirety of one of them.
A Daring Greatly intensive focuses on where we want to show up in our lives, our arenas. The challenging conversations and contexts where we need clarity and encouragement to live into who we want to be. A Rising Strong intensive guides us through the process of examining our stories. Particularly, our experiences of failure. In both types of intensives, participants will:
examine the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are holding us back and identify the new choices and practices that will move us toward more authentic and wholehearted living. The primary focus is on developing shame resilience skills and developing daily practices that transform the way we live, love, parent, and lead. (The Daring Way™)
An intensive will always be a smaller group, usually no more than fifteen people. There is more group discussion and individual sharing, because there is more time together and we go deeper. Intensives, my friends, can be life-changing! That was certainly my experience. The next intensive I am leading (Jan. 20-21, 2020) is based on Daring Greatly and will be about 12 hours, done over a Friday evening and full-day Saturday.
The joy and challenge of this work is that it isn’t “one and done.” This is the work of a lifetime and that kind of work needs ongoing support. And it is powerful to connect with others who are as curious and committed to becoming whole people. People who see the value of examining our own lives, becoming the author of our own stories, and showing up to integrate all of who we are.
So, if you’ve taken a class or workshop, yes, take an intensive! If you’ve taken an intensive, yes, take a class! If you’ve taken an intensive, yes take another one! Our circumstances are always changing, new groups and new people bring new insights. If you want to connect with me to talk about offering a workshop to your community or ask another question, please email me.
Here’s to rising strong and daring greatly for those of us who yearn to live wholehearted lives! Hope to see you soon.
