workshops

Workshops

We offer workshops in acting, singing, auditioning, communication skills, personal growth, creativity and leadership.

The following is a summary of our available workshops. For more information and to schedule a workshop at your organization, please contact us here.

The Improv Workshop

the improv workshop Are you in touch with your inner artist? Are you looking for ways to dramatically improve your creativity?

Whether you are an experienced actor or someone looking to finally play the role of a life time, The Improv Workshop can be the spark that lights up your world.

During The Improv Workshop you'll explore the essential elements of improv and develop the senses, skills, and power you need to act and live more spontaneously.

Improvisational acting improves your ability to think fast, perform, and communicate more effectively in everything that you do. Each session you will work on fundamental skills and build on your ability to create possibilities, deal with all "offers", and refine a personal and group energy that is compelling and powerful.

Using a series of fun games and exercises you’ll be able to use each situation, each conversation, and each scene to your benefit and the delight of others.

Whether you’re an actor, aspiring performer, artist, or just someone who wants to have fun, you will enjoy this chance to explore the world of improv, creativity and artistic play.

Learn from an experienced actor, artist, musician and coach with a degree in theatre and years of touring in both structured and improvised performances.

The Improv Workshop is presented in weekly sessions.

We take a "good clean fun" approach to improv and so these workshops are suitable for all ages. Both children and adults find these games and exercises fun and challenging. Exploring improv and other forms of artistic play makes a great family night for your church or community organization and you'll be talking about it for months afterwards. To bring an improv workshop or series of workshops to your church or community organization, contact Doug.

The Improv Workshop is also great for:

Team Building
Staff retreats
Congregational retreats
Conventions
Community center courses
Conference sessions
Parties
Special events

Deeper Conversations

Strengthen your interpersonal dynamics

What could be more important that building and sustaining mutually helpful and respectful relationships? During this program you will explore your own personality traits, share stories and insights with others, and practice the keys to creating the deeper conversations that lead to more satisfying relationships.

You'll explore the joys and benefits of substantially deeper conversations, talking about what matters the most to you. Using a set of guidelines for effective dialogue, you'll experience communication from an authentic, radically true perspective. Without judging your conversational partners, you'll learn more about the relationships in your life and practice the skills that can solidify those relationships into satisfying, profoundly deep experiences.

Who needs to develop deeper conversational skills? Everyone! Imagine that you can increase your ability to understand and to be understood by those around you. Consider the feelings you'll share when your conversational partners feel listened to and appreciated.

During this workshop you will discover, explore, and practice how to:

Create a series of agreements
Listen actively and with empathy
Understand your conversational partner's points and opportunity
Express yourself openly, creatively, and authentically
Share responsibility for success within your conversation and in the agreements you'll create

Deeper Conversations provides you with the tools and practice that will make every conversation a more rich and fulfilling experience. People may begin to wonder why they enjoy talking with you so much, and you'll know exactly why.

Deeper Conversations is also great for:

Relationship building
Couples conferences
Team Building
Leadership development
Staff retreats
Congregational retreats
Conventions
Acting companies
Conference sessions
Parties
Coffee house sessions
Special events

For more information and availability, contact Doug.

Understanding Yourself and Others
How to communicate more effectively

four squares Do you realize that three-quarters of the people in the world see things fundamentally different than you do?

Do you ever wonder why some people are so hard to understand? Does conflict seem to slow you down and make you uncomfortable? What are the keys to interacting more effectively and communicating with anyone you meet?

During this one day study of interpersonal dynamics you will take and utilize a DISC assessment to bring new insights to how you interact with people and what it is that you, and others, are looking for in your relationships. The results may surprise and intrigue you as you explore the skills that powerful communicators use to establish rapport, build relationships, and achieve successful results.

Understanding Yourself and Others is also great for:

Team Building
Staff retreats
Congregational retreats
Conventions
Conference sessions
Parties
Brainstorming sessions
Special events

For more information or to schedule a session, contact Doug.

Conflict Resolution Skills
How to handle conflict more effectively

how to resolve conflict

Did you know that people tend to follow the same pattern for handling conflict over and over -- even when it's not effective? What happens when communication breaks down or stops altogether? How do you handle a clash of perspectives or personalities?

Conflict Resolution Skills builds on the powerful work of Dr. Kenneth Thomas and Dr. Ralph Kilmann, utilizing their Conflict Resolution Instrument as a way of identifying our preferred patterns of conflict interaction and identifying the additional choices we have available.

During this session you'll explore the five basic conflict resolution strategies and determine which of the five you tend to over-use. You'll explore and practice a method of collaborative conflict resolution that provides hope for mutually beneficial outcomes rather than win/lose conflicts that simply perpetuate themselves.

Learn and practice how to:

Assess your personal conflict style
Practice handling unexpected conflict
Create collaborate conversations that lead to reduced conflict
Use conflict to your advantage, rather than getting stuck as a victim
Expand your conflict resolution flexibility
Avoid unnecessary conflict
Compete fairly and vigorously when the situation requires
Build better relationships through skill conflict management

Conflict Resolution Skills is also great for:

Team Building
Staff retreats
Congregational retreats
Conventions
Leadership development
Project launches
Conference sessions
Special events

For more information or to schedule a session, contact Doug.

Developing The Art of Leadership
A complete program for front line leaders

e33 Leading teams and organizations today requires a balance of the creativity of an artist and the process precision of management. Supervisors, managers, pastors, consultants, professionals -- we're all leaders seeking to influence outcomes and inspire people. How we do that makes the difference between effort and success.

This ten session program will help you develop the skills that are most essential for leaders today. Using a combination of independent study, reading, coaching, action learning, and classroom dialogue you will explore, discover, and practice the competencies that drive organizations toward transformational results.

Each session is 3.5 hours long and includes a complete workbook.

Leadership Foundations
Recruiting for success
Building effective teams
Conversational Leadership
Conflict Resolution
Coaching and Feedback
Leading Effective Meetings
Presentation Skills for Leaders
Leading Change and Innovation
Developing productivity and shared leadership

For more information about public workshops, or to bring this program to your organization, please contact Doug.

Developing Creativity

developing creativity Are you in touch with your inner artist? Are you looking for ways to dramatically improve your creativity?

During Developing Creativity you'll explore a variety of artistic approaches to unlock and magnify your creative joy. Improvisational acting improves your ability to think fast, perform, and communicate more effectively in everything that you do. Collage increases your spatial awareness and helps you create new inspiring connections. Music unifies your whole being and sparks previously untapped creativity. Storytelling and dialogue can improve both your self knowledge and your interpersonal dynamics.

The appreciation and creation of new works of art can lift your spirit to new heights.

Using a series of fun games and exercises you’ll be able to act and live more spontaneously.

Whether you’re an actor, aspiring performer, artist, or just someone who wants to have fun, you will enjoy this chance to explore the world of creativity and artistic play.

Learn from an experienced actor, artist, musician and coach with a degree in theatre and years of touring in both structured and improvised performances.

Developing Creativity is available as a full day workshop or three-day retreat.

We take a "good clean fun" approach to artistic play and so these workshops are suitable for all ages. Both children and adults find these games and exercises fun and challenging. Exploring improv and other forms of artistic play makes a great family night for your church or community organization and you'll be talking about it for months afterwards. To bring an improv workshop or series of workshops to your church or community organization, contact Doug.

Developing Creativity is also great for:

Team Building
Staff retreats
Congregational retreats
Conventions
Conference sessions
Parties
Brainstorming sessions
Special events

The Artist's Way Workshop Series

Awaken and strengthen your inner artist

If you are seeking a way to energize your creativity, engage or re-engage your sense of artistry, and connect to all of the creative power you have within you, this series of workshops based on the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron will provide you with the weekly focus, dialogue, coaching, accountability and connection that will send you on a "spiritual path to higher creativity".

While the book includes everything you need to charge up your creativity and follow a truly artistic path, many people find that they benefit from a group of peers who are seeking the same path and who share their joys, their concerns, and their progress in a weekly gathering. This regular "artist's date" provides an extra jolt and jump that can be transforming.

Each weekly session includes an energizer, a deep and detailed conversation about your progress as a creative artist, a review of your application of the exercises in the book, and help in completing your way through the challenging task of staying true to your creative spirit.

The Artist's Way Workshop is available as a weekly series with each session focused on your chapter reading of the week. You'll have the opportunity to share your creative journey and gather feedback from others as the group works together to let go of all that stands in the way of your creativity and builds on a collaborate sense of creative commitment and joy.

The Artist's Way workshops enhance, enable, and energize your progress through these objectives:

Reconnecting to your inner artist
Developing your a sense of safety
Developing your sense of power
Developing your sense of integrity
Creating new possibilities
Recovering and sustaining a sense of abundance
Keeping a sense of connection
Feeling and applying your creative strength
Creating and applying courageous compassion in your life
Insisting on a sense of autonomy
Recovering a sense of faith

For more information and availability, contact Doug.

Can't attend but want to explore how to deepen your creativity? Get the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

Create your masterpiece

Move forward with your dream of making a difference and create a defining work of art.

You have achieved some amazing things in your life -- some that you recall and others that you may have taken for granted. Deep within you is the drive, the desire, and the gifts you need to make a significant contribution to the world in your field of work and play.

The Create Your Masterpiece program will help you move beyond the pace of change and create the results that you want as you transform your life, your environment, and your world while producing a masterpiece you can be proud of.

Create Your Masterpiece combines a two day retreat with extensive resources and support as you extend your journey of discovery into one of amazing success.

Graduates of the Create Your Masterpiece program also qualify to join a vital weekly group coaching session as part of the Goal Achievers Network, extending your work and play in the dimensions that matter most to you.

How You Will Benefit

Engage the vision, skill, perspective, and action of your inner artist into the work of your dreams
Create success and make a real difference in the world
Create a legacy you can be proud of
Set and achieve transforming goals
Bring your inner artist to work in creating the work you've always dreamed of
Discover the play inherent in your work and the value that emerges in your play

For more information and availability on the Create Your Masterpiece Contact us here.

Are you interested in exploring one or more of these topics but not yet ready for a workshop? Check out our recommended reading and resources.

Do you have a training staff and an interest in delivering these programs at your organization? Contact Doug for details on purchasing our workshop facilitator's guides and training materials.

You may also be intererested in how to:

Develop your singing and speaking voice

Interview fearlessly for auditions, jobs, or the media

Develop your communication skills

Develop your leadership skills

Develop your creativity

Achieve your goals

Dercar and Smith brings together the talent, experience, and resources from Dorinda's Voice Studio and Doug Smith Training to provide you with resources, coaching, and workshops where you can develop your talent and achieve your goals.

Comments or Questions? Contact us here.