REAL Training 2025

Leadership Redefined
You will improve your communication and relationship-building skills while learning to navigate challenging conversations with curiosity & openness. Together we explore models that look at managing stress and external pressure while developing a deeper awareness of group dynamics and emotional literacy. You will uncover personal strengths while giving and receiving meaningful feedback from your peers. Upon completion, you will be practiced in perspective-taking & relational leadership.

Please only register for one REAL Training.

Dates TBD
Tuesday & Thursday Evenings
Online
6 Sessions

January 3rd & 4th
Downtown Vancouver
In-Person
10:00am-6:00pm

Dates TBD
Downtown Vancouver
In-Person
10:00am-6:00pm

Dates TBD
Downtown Vancouver
In-Person
10:00am-6:00pm

Learn more about the REAL Program (formerly Peer Groups)

About the Training

  • In the first meeting, participants are introduced to the program, leaders, assistants, and community guidelines. Students introduce themselves and engage in community icebreakers. We also brainstorm and identify topics, issues, successes, or struggles that they are facing in their relationships and in their personal world. 

  • You will learn the Haven Selves Model, which looks at our ideal self vs our actual self, the self-critic cycle, the process of striving and the challenging behaviours that go along with it, as well as the self-compassion process and making new choices.

  • Learn how to use the Satir Personal Iceberg model to explore the motivators underneath some of their behaviours, while examining yearnings, expectations, beliefs, feelings, feelings about feelings, coping and behaviours. 

  • The group explores different reasons for and styles of communication. They discuss direct vs indirect communication as well as vulnerable vs protective communication. Students examine their need for connection and defences/behaviours that may help or hinder them. 

  • Identify their patterns of reacting vs responding, explore congruency, and the four Satir coping styles we often adopt when we’re uncomfortable.

  • To conclude the training, students engage in a feedback process with each other to reflect on their time together and the changes they have experienced.

What Lumies have to say

  • I absolutely loved the concept of this training. It was thorough and eye opening in many different aspects.

    I learned a lot from the instructors and the other luminaries present in the training. The training helped me overcome my fears of communication and not being confident enough to speak to strangers. I learned that we are judged mostly by ourselves and others are often busy in their own worlds too. This training allowed me to be better prepared to meet new people in university and beyond. Big thanks to Florence and Mackenzie for their amazing energy and time!

  • I liked how in REAL training that we can talk about things not talked about in my own life and have others who can either relate or can be there for me to listen.

    The way things were set up was great as well rather than just sitting down in the same spots we can mingle around to meet new people or reconnect with people you haven’t seen in a while. It’s a good way to learn new things and how to use certain flaws to improve yourself.

  • The thing I liked the most about the Real Training is that both Mackenzie and Flo created a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

    You allowed us to be our authentic selves without there being any judgement. You guys created such a place where we were able to dive into our problems through various activities and talk about them openly. Being able to talk about certain insecurities and issues to a stranger has a bigger impact than we could imagine. We tore down the walls we created about ourselves and were shown how to deal with the negativity. This experience has taught me something, and that is I can be vulnerable, I just have to allow myself to open up to others.

  • I like how most of us started talking as strangers and as the days progressed we got to connect on a super deep level. Although most of our inputs remained anonymous, I was still able to feel connected and hear about the struggles we all face.

“I can say with 10000000% certainty I was better off with having REAL Team sessions this semester! They allowed me to critically think about so many aspects of my life and I opened up to new ways of thinking when facing a problem or when feeling emotionally reactive.”

— Quote from Cohort 2019 Student about REAL Teams Spring 2023