Being seen, being heard, and experiencing connection in relationship are fundamental to our happiness. But many of us weren’t taught how to communicate effectively, particularly how to listen effectively. When conversations get heated, our brains go into fight, flight, or freeze mode — we either become defensive, look for an escape, or shut down. None of these reactions is a recipe for effective communication and connection.
Before creating the Safe Conversations® dialogue process, Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, relationship scientists, asked themselves, “why do people fight?” They discovered that it’s not the actual differences themselves that trigger a fight. The cause of the conflict is the objection to those differences. The Safe Conversations® process is the answer.
– Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Founders, Safe Conversations, LLC ®