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Elements of Choice©

An Experiential Journey into the Incredible Complexity of Choice

Trainer: Tom Leahy

"...Each time she stepped away from the pole, she returned without even taking a breath..., start, stop, start, stop! Participants on the ground shouted up words of encouragement... "you can do it... just take a step... look at the goal... don't look down... you just need to..." I don't think she could even hear them. And her face, it looked different, distant, in pain. I just did not know what to do, how to help, what she wanted, what she needed, if there was any real danger. When she finally came down, all she could talk about was her failure."

A philosophy of participation by choice has been used for years in the challenge / ropes course industry in an attempt to remove the external pressure for participants to perform to perceived or imposed expectations. The lack of perception of choice for participants continues to place individuals beyond their own real physical and emotional limits.

Elements of Choice© is a 20 hour workshop that explores the complexity of choice, goal setting, communication and supportive team relationships. Elements Of Choice© teaches how to approach facilitation of risk elements with confidence and helps facilitators develop the wisdom to know when to hold back.

Elements Of Choice© opens facilitators to the "depths" of high element facilitation and encourages them to see beyond the all too often in-affective promises of participation by choice. It brings them to the wisdom that the learning is not just in the climbing, in reaching the top or in getting to the end. Learning is internal for each participant and it must respond to the very real challenges that they face in life. Learning on a Challenge Course is about finding a voice in the midst of challenge and team. It is about discovering the transformtive meaning and deep complexity of all those words we throw around so freely; trust, confidence, success, choice, participation, encourage, support... and a few words we seem to avoid at all costs; fear, failure, coercion, embarrassment, humiliation...

Elements Of Choice© is a powerful experiential lesson in teaching others and provides facilitators with an incredible set of tools to work with 'timid' and non-physical participants, to enlighten bold and overpowering peers and provide powerful intervention for participants in crisis on the elements. This material is a collection of 20 years of learning of one practitioner / trainer's failures and success in using the low and high challenge course as a tool for growth. Elements Of Choice© will forever change your view of challenge, choice, setting goals and encouraging others.

Elements Of Choice© workshop content includes:

• a demonstration of three types of goals at work in the minds and hearts of participants
• the relationship between and effective balance of task vs. process developing voice as a tool for choice
• building a conscious path to confidence by removing self doubt and perceived failure
• preventing mis-assessments of the goals of others from creating coercive coaching
• a powerful yet simple experiential model for teaching choice & celebrating each person
• bringing choice to tradition low elements that are often "elements of failure"
• coaching techniques that provide clear encouragement and avoid well intended coercion
• when and how to allow a participant to"retreat" while moving towards success
• the Four F's of when fear is a block to a goal
• Body and Mind in conflict
• the emotional rescue and converting the "victim" into a self-rescuer
• and much, much more!

"It is a luxury and a privilege to spend quality time with your coworkers in such a beautiful setting." —PK

"I learned a great deal about myself... the learning didn't stop at 4 p.m." —CV

"This was one of the most helpful sessions I have been in during my 30 years with this job." —PM