Training in Interpersonal Communication

The benefits of this personal growth experience will be felt in your professional and private life. The course provides opportunities to enhance:

•  empathy and sensitivity
•  interpersonal social skills
•  leadership qualities
•  conflict management
•  understanding of group-dynamics
•  self-knowledge

Communication courses of this kind have been developed in Scandinavia since 1970 by medical doctors and psychologists with an interest in Acem Meditation and self-understanding.

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Each communication group has 6-9 participants and 1-2 leaders, and meets for two daily sessions throughout the course. The open and reflective atmosphere provides an opportunity to explore and develop the way you interact with others, as well as your listening skills. It is a means to obtain a deeper understanding of your personality and its formative events. The focus is sometimes on group interaction and sometimes on individual issues and personality.

In addition to the group meetings with the facilitator, the communication groups also have meetings and activities that do not involve the facilitators. At those meetings the participants may rate each other regarding their contributions to the group process and its likes. Some evenings, informal social gatherings are arranged. Daily, the participants hand in self-reports and inventories. Diary writing is also included in the programme. Towards the end of the training course, there will be plenary sessions, and the keys to the interpretations of the inventories will be discussed.  

Typical daily programme 

 0815 - 0915 Breakfast 
 0930 - 1200 Communication groups 
 1215 - 1300 Lunch 
 1315 - 1615 Work tasks, walk, self-evaluation 
 1615 - 1745 Communication groups 
 1800 - 1930 Dinner 
 1930 - 2115 Self-activated groups 
 2130 - Social gathering, Diary and daily report 
 Ca. 2300 Good night

Some of the group leaders are Are Holen, Halvor Eifring, Eva Skaar, Tor Herhoug, Merete Hetland

All participants are expected to attend the training from beginning till its completion.

Participants are recommended not to have any other obligations during the training.

If you are going through a major personal crisis or you are in need of professional treatment and follow-up for mental problems, you are generally not recommended to participate.

On some days the programme includes outdoor group activities, involving simple maintenance work, gardering etc., and you may want to bring suitable clothing for these activities.

Interviews with previous participants

• "Coming home alive." Jan Claudius
• "Better to ride the horse than be stuck in the stirrup." Ingelin Rössland
• "90 years old and on the road to reconciliation." Berit Østbye
• "This will make my life more colourful." Olga Leschen
• "An extraordinary course." Edwin McGillavry
• "Svein Strømberg at the Acem communication course."
• "I communicate better with patients and families." Jacqueline Robert