Dr. Jody Janati presents Protect Yourself from Control Dramas (and Ultimately Find Your Conversation Peace), from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., on November 6, at the Mall of America.

Janati is a trainer, speaker, conference facilitator and author with a degree in Organizational Leadership. She offers a variety of public and professional workshops on conflict reduction tactics and effective communication skills. During her academic career she has worked in administration, taught for the Minnesota state prison system and consulted for numerous organizations throughout the U.S. She has also authored five books.

Got conflict? Janati expresses, “Most people are good people and want to like themselves in the mirror at the end of the day. I have worked in higher education for more than 20 years and have come to understand that we teach what we need to learn. The more we understand someone, the more we can forgive them.”

In the workshop, participants will learn to discern common control drama patterns, how to negate them and better understand themselves from a new point of view, and strategies to deal with difficult relationships in their life. They will leave the workshop with more than 101 ways to deal with difficult interactions and a better understanding of why people behave the way they do.

What is a control drama? James Redfield, a friend of Janati’s and author with a new book coming out in early 2018, coined the term in his book, The Celestine Prophecy, in the early 1990s. Here is how Janati explains a control drama: People “get their way” with others by drawing a person's attention to them, then they elicit a certain reaction from that person to make themselves feel fulfilled.

Many of us engage in a control drama because it offers the ingredients all humans need—love, power, energy, attention, a sense of belonging, etc. However, the positive feelings gained at the expense of the other party are short-lived as this is not an even energetic exchange, but rather a deficit. It has a boomerang effect, rendering the interaction unhealthy for both parties. Often, neither party is aware of what is occurring. The energy exchanged during a control drama episode can cause imbalance and conflict in interpersonal relationships. Once aware of how these dramas play out, one is more likely to consciously choose their responses in a given situation.

Cost: $197. Location: 60 Broadway E., Bloomington. Register at FindYourConversationPeace.com. To learn more about Janati’s work, visit CommunicationInnovation.vpweb.com.