Resistance in Training: Intervening course

You learn to recognise, diagnose and specifically turn around resistance in participants. You work with the resistance and intervention ladder, practise various intervention techniques and discover how to handle your own emotions when things become tense in the group. After the course you have concrete tools to see resistance as a signal and to get the learning process going again.

The course is intended for trainers, educators and facilitators who regularly guide groups and want to become more confident in dealing with resistance. Managers and consultants who run workshops or working sessions will also get a great deal out of it. Some experience in guiding groups is desirable.

No specific prior education is required. It is important, however, that you have some experience of giving courses, workshops or group sessions. That way you can link the material directly to your own practice and bring in your own cases.

Yes, your own cases are more than welcome. Before the course we identify your learning objectives in an intake. During the course there is room to discuss your situations and work through them in role plays, so that the practice is genuinely useful for your own work.

Yes. Afterwards you receive a Learnit certificate of attendance. This shows that you have taken the course and that you have gone into the recognition of resistance and the application of intervention techniques in depth.

Yes, the course can also be delivered in-company for a team of trainers or educators within your organisation. In that case we tailor the content to your practice, target group and specific situations involving resistance. Get in touch to discuss the options.

Resistance is behaviour with which a participant withdraws from the learning process. This can be open, such as criticism or refusing to take part, or covert, such as switching off, making jokes or quietly sabotaging. Resistance often arises when someone feels unsafe, does not see the point, is affected by the content or feels overwhelmed by the pace. It is a signal, not an attack.

Resistance shows itself in verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Think of yes-but responses, playing down exercises, walking off during breaks, closed body language, an absence of questions or, conversely, an excess of critical questions. Silent resistance is often harder to spot than loud resistance. In the course you learn to pick up on signals more quickly and link them to a diagnosis.

The resistance ladder describes different levels of resistance, from mild doubt to open rejection. The intervention ladder offers matching responses, from calmly asking further questions to naming the issue explicitly and setting boundaries. By linking the two, you choose an intervention that fits what is actually going on. Intervening too heavily escalates matters; intervening too lightly solves nothing.

Resistance often affects you personally, trainers included. You may become irritated, unsure of yourself or defensive. The first step is to recognise what it does to you, without reacting straight away. You then learn to choose your response rather than simply undergo it. During the course you practise this, so that you stay calm and in control when things get uncomfortable.

Repairing means restoring contact and the relationship with the participant or group after something has happened in the way you were working together. Steering is then giving direction to the learning process again. The order matters: without restoring contact, steering will not land. In the course you practise how to put this movement into concrete terms in a difficult moment.

You can find the current price at the top right of this course page, along with the schedule, location and delivery format. For in-company or bespoke courses we are happy to provide a quotation on request.