Workshops for parents navigating the moments that feel hardest to talk about — built on research, not guesswork, and taught by a family mediator who does this work every day.
Your kid isn't bad. Their behavior is communication. And what it's usually saying is: I need you — just differently than before. Parents of teenagers often arrive at this stage feeling like they're failing — their child is refusing school, pushing back on everything, and shutting down every conversation. This workshop reframes the whole picture. Drawing on the work of Lisa Damour, John Gottman, Brené Brown, and Mel Robbins, it gives parents the developmental context, the emotional tools, and the practical skills to stop fighting their teenager and start understanding them.
Offered periodically online (Zoom) and in person.
Are you tired of being the family referee? When sibling conflict erupts, most parents feel forced to pick a side or hand out a consequence, only for the same fight to happen again ten minutes later. By trading the "whistle" for a mediator's chair, you can move beyond policing and toward empowering your children to solve their own disputes. In this introductory workshop, Laura Lorber, J.D. — a family mediator and PITC Fellow — will help you understand the fundamental difference between being a mediator and a referee, and why strengthening your own emotional intelligence is key to making that shift. You'll walk away with a developmental framework for understanding rivalry and practical communication tools to help you stay grounded when the yelling starts.
Anxiety isn't a thinking problem. It's a body that doesn't know how to turn off. Most of us try to manage stress and anxiety in our minds — analyzing it, reasoning with it, willing it away. It doesn't work. What's actually happening is that your fight-or-flight response has been triggered, flooding your body with stress hormones that have nowhere to go. This workshop gives them somewhere to go. Through guided movement, breathwork, and simple daily practices, participants will experience — not just learn about — what it feels like when the nervous system finally gets to release. You are not alone in this, and you are not broken — your body is doing exactly what it was designed to do. We're just going to help it finish the job.
Offered periodically online (Zoom) and in person.
Most couples spend months preparing the nursery and very little time preparing for the decisions they'll face at 3 a.m. This class is five conversations you'll be glad you had before the baby arrives. We start with how each of you communicates, and how to have a hard conversation without it turning into a fight. The class then chooses the next three topics together: sleep, feeding, circumcision, how you'll divide the work, or whatever matters most to the couples in the room. Before each session, you'll get materials to help you think through where you stand, so you arrive ready to talk rather than react. Each session mixes short teaching, time with your partner, and small-group conversations with other expecting parents, so you leave with connections as well as a plan. The last conversation pulls it all together: a plan for what you'll do when you disagree, and for what happens when your baby doesn't follow the plan.
Offered by inquiry, for small groups. Online or in person. Grandparents-to-be: see Preparing to Be Grandparents below.
You've raised a family, and you have a lifetime of experience to offer. The hard part is offering it in a way your children can take in. Stories and advice come from love, but when they arrive first, they can put up walls before the real conversation even starts. This class is about becoming a partner to your adult children, so that when the baby arrives, everyone is ready to work together. You'll learn how to follow your children's lead, so that when they do need your help, they're ready to hear it; how to ask questions that serve them, so your help goes where it's actually needed; and how to listen and connect in the moment, so your timing lands well.
Offered by inquiry, for small groups. Online or in person. Your children can take Five Conversations Before Baby.