Isabelle Pénin
Founder and Director of Question de Famille
My driving force: Helping individuals or groups suffering from relational distress to overcome this situation through my unique approach, while respecting each person's identity. Conflict management is about managing coexistence without losing who we are. It is a question that permeates all areas of our lives: family, romantic, professional, associative... It is also what has underpinned my research and training choices. Why not share with you my innovative approach to these issues?
Prices
- On demand
Localization
Languages
Her conferences
Parents in the Fray Turning the Tide with Our Teens
Our cherished child, flesh of our flesh, object of our attention, projection of our parental success, enters the highly publicized phase of adolescence. At the first signs of behavioral change, more aware than ever that we have a lot at stake, we can rely on the wise advice that pours in for parents of teens: Stay calm! Remember, it’s just a phase! Accept that you may have to play the bad guy! These injunctions imply that you are a parent of unwavering neutrality, continuously at the service of your offspring. But what about us, the adults? Who are we at this moment in the game? At 12 years old, my daughter joined a rugby team. Watching her train, I had a revelation. The apparent chaos of this sport for a novice like me, combined with the firm determination of these young athletes to place their ball behind the line, immediately made me think of adolescence. So, barely in sight of middle school: The match begins. For our children, the goal is clear: to cross the lines to score the try. The try for independence, maturity, the try for the adult life that lies ahead. To achieve this, they have a significant ally who is also their worst enemy: the cohort of hormones and neurotransmitters that regulate most of their development. A realization struck me during a family mediation meeting. The parents in front of me are not just playing this match. They are engaged in other sports simultaneously. Some are participating in an endurance race with their own parents, others have just heard the first round bell signaling the end of a union, and still others are starting the second discipline of their professional triathlon. In short, the parent is not a passive shield, inert and destined to train the players. They also have their own life to manage while navigating their children's developmental phases. The question is: will they emerge unscathed from this particular match and will they manage to turn the tide? Parents in the fray is a conference for parents (and their older children) as well as for professionals who want to support them in the best way possible, covering the fundamentals, because you don’t enter a match without knowing the rules and techniques of the game. It’s a “Viva!” to the parents who participate in all the challenges at once, but also a reminder that sports promote teamwork at a time when our society glorifies individualism.
Family at the Mass - Building Your Family, What a Project!
I am a family mediator. It is a profession that is quite poorly known and always deserves some explanation. In my early days, I tried to define "mediation" in a few words. Gradually, I realized that the most difficult word to define was rather "familial". What is a family, after all? How is it built? Where does it start and where does it end? I was first the daughter of my parents, then the parent of my children. But I am also the "step-parent" of my "step-children", and about to see my children leave the nest. So my family consists of several intersecting units. All of this seems quite distant from a triangle of dad-mom-child. And I encounter many family models in my work. They are new, common, marginal (or marginalized). Just imagine what happens when couples tear apart, when parents clash, when families recombine, when children have crises, when grandparents age. What a project! Family at the Mass is halfway between a conference and a one-woman show, as irony and self-deprecation are powerful tools to gain the necessary perspective for calm reflection. A reflection on family and parental issues, on the pressures to succeed, on the unjust reputation given to conflict in our current society. Family mediator, conflict management consultant, TV host, Isabelle Pénin offers us a sociological, psychological, and systemic overview of today's family and its future in the turmoil of conflict. 1.5 hours of liberating show for professionals and revealing for the general public, skillfully playing with the necessary sidestep for taking distance.