Practices: Talks & Workshops

Prajna Consulting and Charis Denison conduct speaking engagements with schools, parent groups, and businesses on a variety of topics. Charis is well known for her dynamic delivery and focused approach. Her talks involve participants as much or as little as desired and are never boring. These programs often serve to jump start a dialogue or continue an on-going conversation for schools, parent bodies, or business communities. Frequently, our clients couple a speaking engagement with workshop facilitation. This allows reflection by and for the involved community as well as time to consider how ideas that arise can be applied.

Below are some of the topics Charis addresses. All of our programs can be and are regularly modified to meet each client's specific needs. Several of the topics belong to a series she calls, “The Set Up.” Those talks maybe booked individually or collectively.

• Justice vs. Charity — An Honest Look at Community Service Curricula and Programs in Schools
• Empathy & Privilege — How Might All Our “Help” Be Hurting Our Kids?
• Ethics and Academic Integrity — The Role Cheating Plays in School Communities
• The Power of Regret (or “Drugs & Alcohol: Finally, a Presentation That Isn’t Stupid”) — A Real Look at the Roles of the Brain and Our Emotional Environment Play in Our Lives Regarding Choices to Use Drugs and Alcohol [This talk can also be coupled with a component of “The Set Up.”]
• An Honest Look at Stress — A Fishbowl Discussion with Students
• Personal Safety — Assertiveness & Self Defense Training
  

“The Set Up” Series

Charis defines “The Set Up” as the crucial point that even when adolescents have positive intentions and solid intellectual information they are often set up to fail by the structures provided to them within the educational system and/or their surrounding culture. Our educational system is more and more emphasizing intellectual assertiveness and knowledge. And their surrounding culture is systematically shutting out opportunities for teens to practice integrating into their daily lives the values and emotional literacy they are learning. Until we reconsider these intrinsic facts in how we educate and raise our kids, they will continue to fail at achieving personal success in their decisions and actions.

This series covers material that is often difficult to talk about or talked about ineffectively. Charis understands this challenge and her presentations reflect it. She delivers her message with a rare combination of directness, passion, and humor. Listeners leave with solid information based on the most current facts, a clear idea of what needs to be done to address the issues, hope that it can actually happen, and the skills to be truly successful. Many schools report that participating in The Set Up series has furthered the missions of their communities.

These talks can be booked individually or as a partial series.

• An Introduction to “The Set Up” — Emotional vs. Intellectual Literacy: How We Are Holding Our Kids Back from Personal Success.
• The Set Up — Gender Roles and Assertiveness
• The Set Up — Date Rape and Sexual Assault
• The Set Up — The Uphill Journey to Women’s Power
• The Set Up — Resisting the Boy Code