De-escalation Training in Boston

Most acts of aggression and violence are the result of everyday social interactions that have taken a wrong turn/gone bad. Most violence is not committed by violent offenders but by ordinary/normal individuals who don’t know how to deal with and resolve verbal disputes/confrontations, that might be the result of “natural” misunderstandings and miscommunications e.g., somebody might not realize they’ve taken somebody’s parking spot, jumped ahead of them in a line, or accidentally knocked into somebody causing them to spill a drink etc. All of these spontaneous acts can cause individuals to become aggressive and highly emotional. Their response in many cases may seem like an overreaction but this doesn’t mean the action or behavior that caused them to become aggressive is insignificant to them. However, all of these types of situations can usually be successfully handled using de-escalation.

Unlike other species, humans – for a number of reasons – lack rituals for avoiding actual violence e.g., dogs and wolves rarely actually fight, and use rituals, involving posture and submission, to avoid physical conflicts. Humans lack these and so when individuals become emotional and aggressive, they find it extremely difficult to prevent verbal confrontations and disputes from escalating towards physical violence. However, whilst our species lacks formal rituals, we do have the foundations of these if not the absolute structures that other animals do e.g., when presented with a face-saving way out of a conflict most people will take it. Unfortunately, the way to do this is not obvious or apparent and needs to be learnt and practiced. This is true of dealing with disputes both in work and social settings.

Boston based criminologist Gershon Ben Keren, has been teaching and training individuals in de-escalation methods since the early 1990’s (you can view a Google Author Talk he did on de-escalation methods by clicking here). Having, first started working as a doorman in UK pubs and clubs in 1990, he recognized that most potentially violent situations could be resolved through effective de-escalation and didn’t require a physical solution; something that might negatively affect a club/bar’s brand, as well as seeing them lose their liquor license (when it came up for renewal). Whilst de-escalation is primarily a violence avoidance tool, designed to keep people safe, it is also a tool for ensuring that an organization’s brand, which is one of its most important assets, remains untarnished.

Gershon Ben Keren offers de-escalation training to individuals, corporations, law-enforcement agencies as well as to other organizations and groups, based in Boston and New England. The fundamentals and foundations of de-escalation are the same, however, the context and goals of the training will be different for each group based on the types of situations they are likely to face/encounter. Please feel free to contact us about your training needs using the button below.

Conflict-Resolution Training in Boston

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to diffuse and de-escalate an angry person is attempting to engage in conflict resolution whilst they are still highly emotional. Often individuals feel/believe that if they can solve the issue that caused the emotional reaction and outburst that this will resolve the issue which caused the incident and the conflict. Unfortunately, when people become highly emotional due to frustration or a perceived injustice, they are not cognitively in the right place to consider a solution, even if it does resolve the issue that initially caused them to become aggressive in the first place i.e., de-escalation must precede conflict resolution if an individual is highly and emotionally volatile.

Most conflict resolution models are designed to deal not with emotional outbursts and aggression but with more deep-seated issues, that have often developed over a period of time e.g., a workplace conflict between two employees, one of whom, feels that they were unjustly passed over for promotion by the other, or an employee who feels that they are being unfairly treated by a supervisor, who gives them the worst shifts and jobs etc. Whilst often these perceived injustices seem minor, they can be extremely significant to those involved etc. In some cases, these “conflicts” have resulted in workplace shootings, including in Massachusetts e.g., the Edgewater Technology shooting in Wakefield, MA. Deadly conflicts can also occur in the workplace involving clients or associates of clients, of an organization e.g., the shooting of Dr. Michael Davidson at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the goals of effective de-escalation and conflict resolution, in workplace settings, is that the client/customer leaves any interaction, feeling better and more optimistic about future interactions with members of the organization.

We don’t offer mediation, arbitration or conflict resolution services concerning specific cases, but we do offer train-the-trainer style seminars around conflict-resolution, to provide training in the different processes and methods that can be used when dealing with both employees and external clients. For more information click here or feel free to contact us about your training needs by clicking the button below.