Webinars

How Teams Get Stuck:  Navigating Relationship Skills and Real-Life

People who support young people bring deep care, commitment, and skill to their work—but they are still human. Under stress, even the most thoughtful facilitators, educators, counselors, and helping professionals can become reactive, shut down, over-accommodate, or lose access to the very relationship skills they most want to model.

In this practical and compassionate webinar, The Dibble Institute and Dovetail Learning will explore what happens when caring people get stuck. Participants will be introduced to Dovetail’s concept of Protective Patterns—common ways people react when they feel overwhelmed, vulnerable, or under pressure—and will consider how those patterns affect communication, conflict, and connection with colleagues, partners, and the young people they serve.

Together, we’ll explore how curiosity can help interrupt unhelpful patterns and create more space for resilience, reflection, and repair. Participants will leave with practical tools they can use right away to strengthen relationships, navigate difficult moments, and support healthier interactions in their work and lives.

Objectives: Participants will be able to:

• Identify common Protective Patterns in themselves and others during moments of stress.
• Explain how stress can interfere with communication, connection, and healthy relationship skills.
• Use curiosity-based practices to respond more effectively in moments of conflict, reactivity, or disconnection.

Presenters:

• Meri McCoy-Thompson; Executive Director- Dovetail Learning
• Jonelle Zachary– Outreach Coordinator- The Dibble Institute

Who should attend: Educators and teachers, school counselors, social workers, youth program staff and facilitators, helping professionals in high-stress roles, supervisors and team leads who support frontline staff, and anyone who teaches or models relationship and social-emotional skills.

When: Wednesday, August 12, 2026 @ 1:00pm Pacific/4:00pm Eastern

Duration: 60 minutes

Cost: Free!