THRIVE Peoria 2009 turned out to be a powerful pair of conferences! The first of the two, a Track IV three day Families Conference with over 60 attendees, took place with great success. Folks from around the country, Canada and Australia traveled to Peoria to hear Barbara Moon, Keith Dorscht, Darrell Brazell, Matthew & Fawn Bradley, Jim Wilder, Ed & Maritza Khouri and us, the Courseys, share how the 19 skills help families be their best. Each presenter shared helpful insights and usable tools concerning their use of 19 brain-based character skills. Staff received numerous positive reports from attendees who gleaned much from the time.
Close to 100 friends from the States, Canada and as far away as South Korea and Australia participated in the second week, a Skill Training conference. Six days and three tracks combine for a fruitful week of interactions, joy building and serious skill training. With Dr. Jim Wilder leading Track 3, Kitty Wilder at Track 2 then Ed & Maritza Khouri leading Track 1, the attendees received from experienced facilitators. We, Jen and Chris, participated in Track 3 this time around, in ‘receiving mode’. Our participation reinforces how important it is to have the skills, not just memorize or know them. We all require practice with people who already have the skills in order to effectively learn and use them. We enjoyed sitting under Dr. Wilder for the week, interacting with familiar faces in Track Three, learning the five pain levels with strategic solutions.
One unique facet about these conferences was the fact that Jen and Kitty were in wheelchairs the whole time. Kitty severely broke her leg several months before the conference so she needed to stay off her leg while it continues to heal. Jen was ordered by her doctor to stay off her feet so she and new baby Coursey are rested. Lord willing, we will have a new addition to the THRIVE family for the THRIVE 2010 conference!
THRIVE team experienced smooth conferences all the way around. We attribute much of the success to the recent addition known as the relational circuits test. Dr. Wilder and the facilitators utilized this new resource to help attendees learn how to activate the brain’s relational circuitry and notice the difference when these circuits are activated (or not) during the training. Working with these circuits is essential within the Thriving Recovery training (thrivingrecovery.org). We find it wonderfully amazing that God has given us such circuitry that, when on, we want to interact and stay relational with people and with Him. When the circuits dim, we are disengaged, disconnected, dismissive, even isolated. This understanding has impacted our lives and training on a massive scale. We thank Dr. Karl and Charlotte Lehman (kclehman.com) for this powerful tool!
Two attendees said it well describing their conference experiences. One expressed, “THRIVE is a great conference that has and will continue to change my life!” While another wrote, “THRIVE was excellent, valuable and life-changing”. These words encourage us as we press on toward future training opportunities.
