The Association for Conflict Resolution and Verbal Atemi

I head out this week to attend the Association for Conflict Resolution 2016 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The Association for Conflict Resolution is one of the largest membership associations for conflict resolution professionals. ACR serves mediator, negotiators, ombuds, educators, academics and peacemakers from across the country and internationally.

I’ll be presenting on the concept of verbal atemi, that has it’s origins in Japanese martial arts. Mark Andres give a great examples of this in his book Sweet Fruit from the Bitter Tree. The idea in is to say or do something that unbalances your attacker. You don’t want to make them angry, just confused – and in the confusion redirect their attention and intention:

Please join us at ACR this week and feel free to stop by and say hello if you are. I’ll be presenting on Friday morning.

All the best and see you there!

Stephen