What If Diversity Training Isn't Working?
An Exploration Around Race, Polarization, & DEI in Professional Settings
Many of our organizational tensions and conflicts arise out of a collective inability to be with our shared pasts and our current polarizations.
Together, we can navigate this.
How Can We Navigate Polarization in Professional Settings?
How Our Approach Is Different
WholeHearted's trainers teach a unique skillset and capacity for teams and leaders to foster greater safety and cohesion around difficult conversations. This supports organizations and teams to be with polarization in a way that enhances everyone’s experience.
Empowering Responses
to DEI Trainings
Studies show that mandatory DEI training can have adverse effects on company culture.
WholeHearted's transparent communication facilitators bring an innovative approach to navigating DEI issues, improving organizational culture and belonging for everyone.
Working with Collective Trauma
We believe that collective trauma is the unspoken actor in many social, organizational, and systemic dysfunctions. People are wounded in relationship, but also heal in relationship. Wholehearted’s facilitators utilize the tools of collaborative attunement as a way to increase organizational and leadership capacity.
Meet the Team
Interdisciplinary, multi-talented, and here for you.
Co-Facilitator | Relational Attunement Trainer
David J. Young, M.A., CMMT
As a collective trauma integration facilitator, certified mindfulness meditation teacher, and executive coach, David supports communities and organizations to heal from collective trauma, enable healthy communication, and transcend polarization. With a background in policy analysis, East Asian studies, and human development, David creates workshops for teams to solve complex problems and make important decisions by focusing on the intersection of systems innovation and collective trauma.
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David is a co-creator and co-facilitator of various training programs including: Attuned: Becoming Trauma Informed & Trauma Responsive In Professional Settings (accredited by the Law Society of Ontario); and Radical Wholeness: A 10-Week Online Journey. He also co-hosts the podcast, Attuned: Trauma Integration in Professional Settings (https://open.spotify.com/show/6k3EDhMHzSvPyCdE1U1hl9).
He is a student of collective trauma healing with Thomas Hübl and enjoys traveling, hanging out in tea shops and camping with his kids.
Co-Facilitator | Systems Change Facilitator
Heather Thalheimer, B.Sc.
Heather Thalheimer is a content creator and author of WholeHearted Podcast's Four Minute Fridays. She is co-host of the Attuned Podcast series: Trauma & The Legal System. Professionally, Heather has extensive leadership experience in the nonprofit world, supporting immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, and individuals who are economically marginalized. She has worked at the state and national levels on advocacy and systems-change initiatives. She offers executive coaching and attuned leadership training for teams and individuals.
Heather has developed numerous curricula, including Attuned: Becoming Trauma Informed & Trauma Responsive In Professional Settings (accredited by the Law Society of Ontario). She is a certified Thomas Hubl Transparent Communication Practice Group leader. She is a certified Thomas Hubl Transparent Communication Practice Group leader. She has presented at conferences internationally, and facilitated strategic planning for organizations in the Philippines, Canada, South Korea, and United States.
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Heather lives in a log cabin with her husband and enjoys reading, hiking, and fresh baked bread.
Co-Facilitator | Collective Dialogue Facilitator
Kelsey Lavoie, M.A., J.D.
As a community-builder, educator, and restorative justice dialogue facilitator, Kelsey brings skills in the areas of stakeholder engagement, human rights advocacy and group facilitation. Experiences include navigating complex power dynamics connected to disability, gender and race.
With a background in sociology, law and organizational governance structures, Kelsey is passionate about supporting human-made systems and structures to become more human. Specific areas of interest include restorative/transformative justice, transparent communication, participatory research, and Indigenous legal traditions.
Kelsey studies collective trauma healing with Thomas Hübl, and likes to play guitar, officiate ceremonies and watch stand-up comedy.
Our Offerings
What If Diversity Training Isn't Working?
Length: 30 - 45 min
This is great for keynotes, lunch & learns, professional trainings, retreats, and conferences.
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A professional development presentation exploring race, polarization, and the responses to DEI initiatives (Diversity Equity Inclusion) in professional settings.
Learn to identify the symptoms and signs of collective fragmentation and the process of navigating and integrating polarization in yourself and in group settings.
Why Is This So Hard to Talk About?
Length: 60 - 90 min
This session is great for community leaders, professional development trainings with employees, leadership teams, HR representatives, and general audiences.
An interactive presentation about the ways that our conversations around topics like polarization, race, gender, or DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) trainings are shaped by our internal states, hampering our capacities to be collaborative. These states can include stress, excitement, fatigue, mental overwhelm, fear, passion, trauma, and feelings of scarcity.
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We show how the nature of polarization keeps us in a fixed dynamic, and we offer tools to navigate and respond in ways that foster greater teamwork, collaboration, connection, and insight.
How Do We Feel, Hear, and Connect When Polarized?
Length: One Day
This is designed for leadership teams, trainers, coaches, community leaders, HR representatives, and the general public.
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A foundational full-day training to explore the role of collaborative attunement in team building, organizational functioning, and systemic trust.
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Through individual and group exercises, we will learn and practice the fundamental skill of identifying and digesting polarization. Throughout the training, participants will build capacities for engaging and collaborating in situations of interpersonal and collective divisiveness.
How Do We Grow, Disagree, and Thrive Together Sustainably?
Length: TBD
This is designed for organizations and communities.
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This offering will provide ongoing support to leaders and organizations to embody the competency of collaborative attunement. Together, we will create a unique plan that is tailored to the needs, size, and developmental stage of your organization, team, or community.
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We will support you to understand and navigate the ways organizational landscapes are shaped by undigested collective and historical trauma. This will enable you to create environments that transform polarization and trauma into sustained organizational wisdom, innovation, and effectiveness.
*Depending on organizational needs, this can include multi-day training, 1-on-1 leadership coaching, team coaching, community outreach support, logic model development, design sprints, and strategic planning. ​
