How to Repair: An Introduction to Conscious Relational Repair

An invitation to learn tools for mending what breaks between us

Silent Contact by KP Reynolds

We’ve noticed something painful in our culture: when relationships rupture, we often don’t know how to find our way back to each other. A misunderstanding with a friend becomes years of silence. A conflict in community leaves us keeping our distance. A hurt in family becomes a story we carry forever. We lose neighbours, colleagues, beloveds - not because the bond wasn’t real, but because we don’t have the tools to repair what’s broken.

The cost is enormous. We live at arm’s length from each other. We hold onto judgments and old wounds. Our communities fragment. Our capacity for connection shrinks. And underneath it all, there may be grief - for all the relationships we’ve let slip away, for all the closeness we’re too afraid to risk.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Conflict is inevitable. Hurt is part of being human together. The question isn’t whether rupture will happen - it’s whether we know how to repair. This workshop offers an alternative to our culture’s unconscious, divisive, punitive approach to conflict. We’re inviting you into a conscious, restorative way of being with rupture - one that acknowledges our wounds and shadows, that makes space for different truths to coexist, that brings curious compassion to ourselves and each other.

Over five hours together, we’ll explore practical tools for repair across all kinds of relationships - friendships, family, romantic partnerships, community, professional connections.

We’ll work with:

∙ Nonviolent Communication (NVC) tools, particularly reflected check-ins that help us truly hear each other

∙ Shadow work and projection - noticing when our reactions reveal our own unhealed places

∙ Intergenerational trauma - understanding that we’re not separate from the wounds and patterns we carry

∙ “I have a story about you” - a practice for naming and softening the narratives that keep us apart

∙ Holding space where both people’s subjective experience can be acknowledged, even when they differ

This isn’t about being nice or avoiding conflict. It’s about building the relational resilience to stay connected through life’s realities. It’s about choosing repair over separation. It’s about weaving a stronger relational fabric in our culture, one conversation at a time.

This workshop is for anyone - any age, any gender, any relationship context. If you’ve ever lost someone you cared about because you didn’t know how to bridge the gap, this is for you. If you want to learn how to maintain your bonds when things get hard, this is for you. If you’re tired of the loneliness that comes from our collective inability to repair, this is for you. Come learn skills you can bring into all your relationships, for the rest of your life.

Led by Briony Greenhill and Oliver Bettany

Briony has been teaching and facilitating for 20 years, primarily as a musician and music teacher. She’s also been in a lot of conflicts - because she speaks her mind - and has learned repair the hard way. Her training includes Nonviolent Communication work with Jayaraja (Triratna Buddhist and former chair of Buddhafield Festival) and Kelly Bryson, a month-long community residential at Tamera Ecovillage, a month-long conscious community residential at Life Itself in France with the Cultural Catalyst Network, years with the Network for a New Culture in the US (focused on intimacy and relating skills), couples therapy, and experience as a participant in professional mediation. She brings two decades of group facilitation experience and hard-won wisdom about what it actually takes to stay connected through difficulty.

Ollie is a humanistic counsellor, ecotherapist, teacher and founder of Wild Oak and The Wellspring men's mentoring community in South Devon. He has nearly 15 years of experience as a therapist and men's work facilitator, including specialised training in ecopsychology and nature-based practice and working with couples and groups. He brings his keen understanding of archetypal psychology, shadow work and soul to his work and his partnership with Briony.

Between us, we’ve seen again and again how desperately our culture needs these tools. We’re offering this workshop because we believe disconnection doesn’t have to be the end of the story - and because we’ve experienced firsthand how repair can turn rupture into healing, growth, and a wider, deeper relational capacity.