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Welcome to my site!

I will be posting selections from my upcoming book, Beyond Climate Shock: A Passionate Approach to Saving Community or How to Adapt to Climate Change Without Draining the Bank.

I am a regenerative facilitator and mediator. I bring a positive and pro-active framework to gather the appropriate group to work towards an effective solution based on the inherent potential in community.

The mantra, complex problems require complex solutions, often results in looking backwards and repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Government, businesses, and organizations bring people to the table, clearly motivated to effect change. As the focus on the problem narrows, disagreements morph into fun blown conflict.  The often problem mindset leads to the loss of other important elements that define place.  The geography, cultural heritage, ecosystem, and watershed all contribute to how people see their community. The resulting solutions often solve one problem while simultaneously creating another. Dams are built to generate energy and  rich farmland and heritage sites are lost. Housing projects provide shelter but isolate and separate families. The single-minded focus on the problem to be solved often results in a cleverly designed or engineered solution to the wrong problem.

Beyond the shock of problem-focused thinking a new approach is emerging. Regenerative design offers a framework based on the potential of place. From this perspective the features that make a place unique to those who inhabit the space can be drawn out and explored, often revealing forgotten strengths and wisdom.

When individuals with different areas of expertise and beliefs come together to solve a problem, a lack of clear purpose and personal opinion can lead from minor disagreement to full-blown conflict. To add fuel, the well-intended expert or meeting organizer is perceived to be biased towards a particular outcome. Listening and trust fall away and shockingly, things soon fall apart. As a regenerative mediator I provide a framework to guide participants along the path of discovery. Differences inform and provide focus. The inherent potential for innovative and creative solutions emerges. Regardless of your role, when you recognize that you can’t do it alone, you have taken the first step towards building supported and beneficial solutions in our changing world. In my practice and my upcoming book, Beyond Climate Shock, I address these and other common pitfalls.

Earth’s changing climate is causing irreparable harm to people in communities around the globe. Not only are lives lost and homes, schools and hospitals damaged or destroyed, many are wondering what if anything can be done. Denial is still a popular (or is that populist) response. Yet, with a focus on what we can do, we can build resilient, restorative, and regenerative communities.

Beyond Climate Shock offers a framework to bring people with differing perspectives together to affect real change. In local and special interest communities, people are facing complex decisions daily. From mothers protecting their children to senior elected officials juggling multi-million dollar budgets new insights and positive place-based solutions are emerging.  Beyond Climate Shock offers new language along with proven tools to enhance our ability to work together effectively and equitably. The Earth is our one shared resource and those of us who inhabit her have much to offer one another. Climate change is a disruptive force. It offers the opportunity to take a stand. As Taos Pueblo Artist Juanita Suazo Dubray once said to a group of her students, “Don’t just stand there looking’ beautiful – do something!”