A few notes from past workshops.

I came expecting a course in techniques and left having mostly learned to slow down. The first morning was just listening practice, and I was honestly impatient with it. By day two I understood. The follow-up call a month later caught me at exactly the right moment — I had been sitting with a particular case and it helped me think it through.

The structured debrief is the part I keep thinking about. It's such a small thing — mediator first, parties next, observers, then the facilitator. But after twelve rounds of it I noticed I was doing it in my head during real meetings. The room itself was lovely, by the way. Tea was good.

Honest review: I think two days felt slightly rushed for the amount the workshop tries to cover, and I wished we'd had a third morning. That said, the practice rounds are well-designed and the feedback I got from the facilitators was specific and kind. The workbook is good — I keep going back to the framing notes in section three.

We brought Halcyon Hall in for an in-house workshop with our team of fourteen. The scoping conversations beforehand were thorough — they asked good questions and the scenarios they wrote felt unmistakably like our work. Six months on, the team is still using the structured debrief format in our case reviews.

I've been back for three Reflective Practice Sessions now. Each one takes one theme and goes carefully into it. The session on working with silence was the most useful three hours I've spent on my professional development this year. Small group, very focused.

Thoughtful, well-paced workshop. I came in skeptical about role-play and left changed about its usefulness when it's done well. The facilitators were unhurried — they didn't fill silences, which I noticed and appreciated. Pre-reading was a bit dense; I'd suggest starting it earlier than I did.