Difficult & Controversial Conversations - Role Play and Learning Together

Please Note: This is a learning event. Do not expect any measure of perfection. All welcome.

Join us for this event, where we will role-play to Learn How to Have Controversial Conversations and to disagree with each other - without being unfair, judgemental, or nasty!
Most of us are striving to achieve consensus, but inherently in life, not just in politics, there are very different opinions clashing against each other.

Sometimes a consensus is not possible, and the ability to disagree respectfully is important if people are to live together peacefully.

Whether it is freedom of expression in Canada, or free speech in the USA, whatever we want to say we should be able to express appropriately in a free society.

We want to help preserve this right by practicing controversial conversations and debate on any topic without fear of censorship. (There will be some necessary rules to avoid gross obscenity and extreme hate speech, especially when it curtails inciting of violence, but you wouldn't want to try to do either of these, right?)

The "battle on the stage" - online or in person - can lead to violence if someones opinion is misunderstood, battled with emotion instead with rules, respect and reason - and acted out with deadly weapons instead of "just" words.

Words themselves do not hurt physically. But words can hurt someones feelings, can be experienced as offensive and be mistaken for hatred and incitement of violence.

Free Speech is one of the fundamental freedoms of humans in any functioning society and democracy (=rule of the people).

But: Where do we draw the line?

How do we learn to properly and fairly express and argue our opinion and point and view?

We will try to learn this together with any of you willing to learn with us.

The main and guest presenters are not experts in communication by university training, but have combined over 100 years of life experience, training as coaches and/or salespeople, other training involving communication, negotiations and similar, read books and took training courses on the topic and "survived", like all of us, many battles with words.

Kindness, steadfastness, respect for life and others opinions and purposefulness are important values to us. "Love God, and love others like yourself"

How do we become mentally resilient enough to tolerate others expressing their views that may be very different from ours - without falling apart, feeling offended, censoring speech or even resorting to outright violence to silence the speaker?

These online sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage in role-playing scenarios to help navigate through controversial topics.

This is meant as a starting point of a series to learn, teach and practice how to respectfully disagree, clearly explain and reason your own point of view and either convince the other party to consider or even join your viewpoint - or leave each other, agreeing to disagree for now.

Everyone older than 20 or 30 has changed their opinion on different topics over a lifetime.

We want to contribute to enhancing our communication skills and learn how to respectfully debate differing viewpoints.

Don't miss out on this interactive and educational experience.

We will be starting to practice with easy examples (e.g. Bananas are better than Pineapples), and then progressively to more controversial , emotionally laden and much more complex topics (e.g. from politics)

Step into guided role-plays to practice the 5 W’s, separate ideas from identity, and try on devil’s-advocate perspectives—skills you can use with clients, teams, and communities. Build respectful disagreement muscles that de-escalate tension, protect boundaries, and keep conversations purpose-driven.

Learn to stay calm, kind, and clear under pressure while navigating hot-button topics in your practice, sales, or public speaking. Walk away with conversation frameworks, phrases that reduce defensiveness, and the confidence to hold space without losing your stance.

In a supportive, practice-first environment, you’ll rehearse real-world scenarios—from pricing pushback to inclusivity debates—so you can respond with empathy, logic, and respect. Leave with a repeatable process for turning conflict into clarity or “agreeing to disagree” without damaging trust.

Sign up now!

Please watch this TEDx Talk about Discussing Controversial Topics before the event.

A great summary of how to do it.

Here are the 3 steps from the video:

This works for simple conversations, for conversations with a defined and urgent purpose, e.g. sales, negotiations etc, there are more refined rules necessary to achieve a good outcome. (See book list below)

Make every conversation a learning conversation. Make your goal to learn as much as you can about the other person and their ideas. Know that there is no "obligation" of any kind to agree at the end. Agreeing to disagree is a proper outcome in most conversations.

1. Start with the 5 W's
2. Try and Separate the ideas from the person holding them
3. Encourage the other person (not you) to play devil's advocate and argue their own point from the opposite viewpoint

Book Recommendations:

Difficult Conversations - How to Discuss What Matters Most

by Douglas Stone, Burce Patton and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project

A NewYorkTimes bestselling book, and we are using it as a foundation for this Event Series.

This book is a great and detailed resource on how to conduct difficult conversations even around controversial issues without it ending in a shouting match, personal attacks, friendships upended and worse. In relationships, at work, or in politics.

https://amzn.to/48Rycrz

Boundaries

by Henry Cloud and John Townsend - Great to explore your boundaries and develop empathy and respect for your and others boundaries, define your boundaries and then assertively "enforce" them in a kind way.

Link to Amazon: https://amzn.to/3s1pr7C

Full disclosure:

The links above are affiliate links and point to amazon.com, the most commonly used marketplace. If you are in another country, you can start with the same link and then switch to your country. Of course, feel free to purchase books wherever you like.
I have personally reviewed, read and bought these books and learned very much so I give them my heartfelt recommendation. You will not pay more when you order or purchase these items with my affiliate links, but Amazon will reimburse me a small amount (usually 4-6% of the purchase price) as a thank you for the recommendataion (this is called an affiliate fee.). I am grateful for your support.

About the presenters:

Dr. Christine Sauer MD ND and Gerry Daniel CAIS

This event is organized and presented by Dr. Christine Sauer, author or co-author of 13 books, some of them #1 international bestsellers, and Gerry Daniel, Certified AI Specialist and Sales and Marketing expert.

Gerry and Dr. Christine have together over 100 years of experience in wellness, authorship, sales and marketing.

About Dr. Christine Sauer MD ND:

Check out her many books on Amazon: Click HERE for Amazon Author Page

Dr. Christine Sauer Dr. Christine Sauer, MD ND, grew up in Germany, raised two sons and became a physician. is a retired physician and naturopath with over 40 years of experience in health and wellness.

She is a prolific writer, multiple #1 international bestselling author, an engaging TEDx speaker , course creator, radio and podcast host, and a Mentor and Trainer of Soulful Life and Health Coaches, a dedicated team leader, researcher and educator/teacher, as well as a Certified Brain and Mental Health Professional, Licensed Brain Trainer, Licensed Neuroencoding Specialist, Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Certified Havening Techniques® Practitioner, Gastrointestinal Disease Specialist, Allergologist.

Just a few years back, she co-founded the AI Wellness Universe with her business partner Gerry Daniel.

About Gerry Daniel CTO

Gerry is a Certified AI Specialist, 1000x Certified LLM Prompting Expert, a Sales and Marketing Professional, Soulful Leaders Transformational Life Coach, Soulful Nutrition Health and Life Coach as well as a strategic, calm and patient mentor and teacher, a Fitness Enthusiast, Father, Husband, and Dog-Lover.

With over three decades of corporate experience under his belt, Gerry transitioned from a career working with global and iconic brands just a few years back to co-found the AI Wellness Universe with Dr. Christine.

About the AI Wellness Universe and the Easy AI System

Dr. Christine and Gerry co-founded the comprehensive, specialized Easy AI system within an event, podcasting, training and collaboration platform that we call the AI Wellness Universe.
We are dedicated to help health and wellness businesses promote their products, services and create content with ease, so they can increase their client base, impact and revenue.

Operating as a non-profit, we can keep the costs for the end-user low - the lowest possible for comparative systems.

Our Mission

Our mission is to transform and elevate the wellness industry by empowering entrepreneurs to create impactful, thriving businesses that inspire healthier lives and lasting change.

What We Do:

At the AI Wellness Universe, we provide an all-encompassing AI-driven platform tailored for wellness entrepreneurs. We empower professionals like holistic health practitioners, fitness trainers, and wellness coaches to simplify processes, scale operations, and focus on what they do best—caring for their clients.

Values and Passion:

Our journey is fueled by a firm belief in innovation, integrity, and growth. We are committed to fostering a community where wellness professionals can thrive by embracing change and using technology ethically, responsibly and creatively.

Uniqueness:

We stand out in the marketplace by offering customized, wellness-specific Easy AI apps, all without the need for coding. Our solutions integrate a no-code, user-friendly interface designed for ease of use, ensuring that even the non-tech-savvy can implement AI seamlessly into their practices.

Goals:

Our goals include hosting industry-leading AI & Wellness Innovation Summits and expanding our ecosystem to empower over 500,000 wellness entrepreneurs within the next 10 years.

Learn more:

https://ai-wellness-universe.org/easy-ai-tools-future-wellness-business-growth/

Event registrants become free members of the AI Wellness Universe and agree to receive marketing email notifications of future events and associated products and services by the AI Wellness Universe and its members. You can unsubscribe anytime.