Defensive Communication

Students who are interested in gaining awareness of dysfunctional communication and learning how to transform it for better interactions.

• Exploration of Virginia Satir’s defensive communication styles
• Effects and consequences of a dysfunctional communication
• How does congruent communication look like?
• Observation, recognition and practice of the different styles

Managing a family business means dealing with a sensitivity, emotions, and specific roles that are inherent in a family setting. This often makes it challenging to communicate efficiently and congruently, and hence may easily give rise to conflicts. The American therapist Virginia Satir, especially known for her approach to family therapy, observed people’s ways of communicating in the family – space of our first relation to authority – and developed a communication model based on her decades-long work with families. The MCIWebinar will explore Satir’s defensive communication styles and show how they affect our interaction with others. Besides the theoretical aspects, a strong focus will be laid on practicing and experiencing.

Thus, students will

• gain awareness of their own defensive communication styles, in order to develop understanding for themselves and others
• identify the mechanisms that may lead to a dysfunctional communication and generate misunderstandings and conflicts
• observe when some defensive communication styles may be useful in certain circumstances