Conflict to Growth: Lessons from War Zones for Therapeutic & Social Change

In this talk, I will share insights from my work in high-stakes international disputes, where I have navigated complex interactions with people ranging from former paramilitaries, combatants, and guerrilla fighters to policymakers and business leaders. These challenging environments taught me that universal principles for addressing complexity are applicable across sectors, communities, and disciplines.

One powerful analogy is fractality—the idea that patterns repeat at different scales, each pattern containing smaller copies of itself, extending indefinitely.

These experiences highlight universal truths that resonate in diverse contexts—from war zones to boardrooms, therapy rooms, and relationships with ourselves and others—emphasising our shared humanity.

Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event

• Explore how power dynamics, systemic inequalities, and historical trauma shape both large-scale conflicts and interpersonal struggles.
• Learn how conflict resolution strategies from high-stakes environments—such as war zones and political negotiations—can be adapted to foster emotional resilience, healing, and meaningful dialogue.
• Reflect on the intersection of personal experience, identity, and bias in developing strategies to sustain wellbeing while engaging in emotionally demanding and transformative social change efforts.

Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?

• Therapists, counselors, and mental health professionals.
• Social justice activists and community organizers.
• Researchers and educators.
• Individuals who want to understand and apply conflict transformation principles in their personal and collective struggles.
• Leaders and facilitators working in social change, advocacy, or therapeutic spaces who wish to enhance their approach to collaboration and consensus-building.
• Anyone committed to personal and collective healing and interested in applying lessons from extreme conflict environments to everyday challenges.

How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?

• Develop practical conflict resolution skills for de-escalation and meaningful dialogue.
• Strengthen emotional resilience in therapeutic and social justice work.
• Enhance self-awareness by reflecting on personal biases and experiences.

ZOOM 

This event will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.

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If you are not a member of a professional organisation, we ask that you participate in a way that is both authentic and respectful, fostering a space of mutual learning and professional engagement.

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Yeshim Harris

Yeshim is a London-based specialist in conflict resolution, organisational resilience, and leadership under pressure. With a background rooted in engagement in complex international disputes, she applies her expertise to corporate and organisational challenges, helping teams, partners, and stakeholders build trust, navigate tensions, and transform conflicts into growth opportunities.

What sets Yeshim apart is her ability to draw on lessons from her work in challenging conflict zones, including direct engagement with former combatants and paramilitaries. This unconventional experience has equipped her with a unique perspective on dialogue, transformation, and sustainable peacebuilding, which she applies across sectors.

Partnered with the United Nations, Yeshim has led high-level initiatives involving businesses, political figures, and civic leaders, even in deeply entrenched, resistant contexts. Her diverse experience spans the UK, USA, EU, Cyprus, Lebanon, South Africa, Colombia, and Central Asia, working with clients such as the military, British Parliament, UNDP, UNAIDS, Manchester Airport Group, the Kenyan Electoral Commission, Boeing, and Accenture.

An MSc graduate, Yeshim holds a diploma in conflict resolution, and she is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Kent. She is an approved trainer with The Institute of Leadership and regularly provides consultancy to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Peace Training: https://www.peacetraining.eu/trainer/1133

University of Kent: https://research.kent.ac.uk/conflict-analysis/person/yeshim-harris/

Fun Fact:

Yeshim was first startled but then delighted to realise that the same techniques she used with high-level conflict parties also helped her negotiate with her determined toddler (now 18) on bedtime rules and sweets before dinner.

Website | www.yeshimharris.com

LinkedIn | Yeshim Harris