We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. (A. Einstein)

We believe in Emotionally Intelligent Builders and ChangeMakers. Emotional Intelligence is the single most important precursor for success in business and in life. Strong social emotional skills differentiate exceptional professionals from the average. We have created one of the very few efficacy-proven Emotional Intelligence training programs in the world, EASEL®, experiential social emotional learning and therapy. EASEL helps strengthen the participants’ own social emotional skills and teaches the methodology for use in own work.

We know that in today’s complex world and constant flood of information, families’ busy schedules and the growing demands of work life, “wanting” is not always enough. The best road forward gets easily fuzzy. Our daily life also requires from the brain and body’s biochemistry so much that we easily end up “driving 100 km/h in third gear”. Research has shown that the greatest cause of stress is relationships – either directly or through experiences of others making bad decisions that affect you. Most of us continue interacting with others also in our sleep.

Change is unavoidable in life and in business but it does not have to be overly difficult or take long. However, growth as a person, professional or organisation is a choice. We believe people do their best and will make necessary changes, as long as certain key precursors are in place. If you or your people don’t make the needed changes, you are off the mark somehow. If the TV is broken, fixing the toaster isn’t helpful. ET’s Founder Mari Louhi-Lehtio is internationally experienced multi-professional consult and coach of professionals and leaders whose work demands strong interpersonal skills. She can help you make any change you need to make in personal or professional life and she will walk you through how to build great teams, precursors for change and to motivate your people to grow and become even better at what they do.

 

Mari and her team:

  • coach professionals whose jobs demand strong Social and Emotional Intelligence and who want to be both successful at what they do and well.
  • consult organisations and their leaders who need to get others to make the changes that need to be made.
  • can help you make any change you need to make in personal or professional life.
  • teach you how to motivate your people to grow and become even better at what they do.
  • train your people to boost own Emotional Intelligence and to better understand what happens when they interact with others
  • help you and your team to Take The Lead with EASEL®.

our programs follow specific EASEL – processes towards general goals, but the content is always tailored to the customers’ needs. We also consider it our professional pride to be able to modify the content on the spot according to what rises in the audience. In addition, EASEL has been designed to allow individual coaching within a group process, because each member of the group will need to apply what they have learned to own circumstances.

TakeTheLead Programs:

You get the basics in human behaviour, the “social brain”, and current scientific knowledge of stress management, learning / change, motivation, resilience etc. We work from theory to your cases and test the insights against theory. Our speciality is creating powerful, authentic, unique workshop experiences for even the most seasoned adventurers. And don’t worry, at ET the only reason you would be building a tower from blue balloons would be to highlight how it feels to be asked to do something stupid and besides the point.

All services are fully tailored to our client’s needs and wishes. To respect the privacy of our clients we don’t market with references. Instead, you can book a one-hour-talk to your Friday afternoon coffee, and decide for your self.

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EASEL®TakeTheLead training programs and coaching strengthen your competences in e.g. the following core areas:

  • Personal and professional social emotional skills that, when strong, help you succeed and feel good in work and private life.
  • How to motivate staff to reach goals and to create the right atmosphere for them to move from striving to thriving (in spite of the unavoidable challenges and tough demands).
  • Real stress-management. Staying calm yet sharp in ever changing situations and turbulences. Effective tools for coaching people through stressful situations and skills to handle any situation without lapsing into the pitfalls of dominance, alienation, intimidation or victimization.
  • How to skillfully discuss difficult matters so that you find out what the actual problem is – if the TV is broken fixing the toaster won’t help- and you know how to influence the direction, atmosphere and end results of the dialog.
  • How to create an atmosphere in your organization that supports budding ideas, learning from mistakes, sharing silent knowhow etc.

Some of the key elements that separate EASEL®TakeTheLead from other training companies are

  • Truly multi-professional team
  • Efficacy proven in study on-going in Jyväskylä University Department of Psychology
  • Truly integrative theoretical foundation that combines the key elements from evidence-based models of SEL, coaching, teaching and psychotherapy, results from social neurosciences translated into language and tools everyone can use, and experiential social emotional learning.
  • Highly effective combination of individually tailored coaching and group process, psycho-education and EASEL®tools selected based on the topics in discussions, authentic experiential activities tailored to investigate those topics further, and guided processing linking new insights to your work.

We have over 200 experiential activities based on real cases, real situations, producing real skills and solutions that are useful in the office the next day. It is even possible to choose the “MasterClass” of social emotional skills training – experiential exercises with our trained EASEL® horses… Sounds crazy maybe, but wouldn’t you want to join the companies around the world that do send their board rooms and managers to train social emotional skills with horses? Even Stanford University runs a course with horses for medical students in “bedside manners”. We have run workshops with horses for leaders in Finland and Brussels who had no prior experience of horses, yet their response was that it was one of the best training they had had in years. Why? Because horses don’t listen to your words or read your business card. You have to be the whole you. And unlike civilized people, horses tell you if you are not fully present and convincing (usually by walking away). The feedback is immediate but you also get to make changes and try again.

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It is well known from research and experience that to change thinking, actions, attitudes and beliefs quickly requires some powerful experience. EASEL®TakeTheLead programs combine individual feedback with group process, theory and experiential learning, a strong foundation in science e.g. social neurosciences, education, and psychology, and thanks to the every-day-examples, the participants are able to understand and integrate the learned into a meaningful working framework for own work. The insights gained invariably influence peoples’ private lives, too.

Request an offer of a program for your company, or sign up for the next open course!

12 + 6 =

We continue working in the fields we talk about. We walk our talk.

PS.

Evolution has created an ingenious motivation mechanism in the brain for people to strive to get along with others. Care and compassion changes fear into courage to help others, but even a mild social rejection shows in the same areas of the brain as physical pain. The human brain uses, according to some studies, up to 80% of its capacity to scan the moods and intentions of people around. Further more, we recognize the emotional states of others by getting their emotions physically into our own body. Cheating does not help either as hiding a negative emotion raises blood pressure in the other person more than expressing the feeling.

 

 

Participants to our workshop listed the following examples of important new insights:

  • How to recognize own emotions and distinguish them from the emotion contagion from others in social situations.
  • How enhancing emotion regulation and the awareness of the influences of “a chemical cocktail” (of an emotion) in the body are important keys to personal development.
  • It is possible to learn to better regulate own emotions and reactions once you understand the process in the human brain and body.
  • The ability to feel empathy and compassion towards others starts from the experience of compassion towards self.
  • The importance of setting own boundaries and how to deal with “boundary violations” (conflicts) in a constructive way. Strengthening own social emotional skills to be more sensitive of other people’s boundaries when interacting with them. On the other hand, widening own understanding to not automatically take someone’s behavior as deliberate boundary violation if I haven’t expressed my boundaries clearly.
  • Own responsibility in social situations. Strengthening own social emotional skills and accepting that there are two responsible parties in every interaction.
  • Letting go of preconceptions and unhelpful attitudes and beliefs.
  • Own behavior and attitude may be a lock but also a gate to something new.

"Mari Louhi-Lehtiö has successfully combined to each training day a strong foundation in science (social neurosciences, education, psychology etc.) that, thanks to the every-day-examples, participants are able to understand and integrate into a meaningful working framework for own work. The insights gained invariably influence peoples’ private lives, too. I warmly recommend both EASEL® as a facilitation methodology and Mari as an outstanding coach, trainer, and lecturer."

 

“Social emotional skills are essential in our work when we train corporate leaders, executives and teams. The trainer’s own healthy self-awareness and ability for empathy (without being swallowed by it) are key elements for success in our work. EASEL® offers us as leadership trainers a solid framework for learning and analyzing our work. I have spent a year in EASEL Facilitator training but even in just one training day to my colleagues Mari increased their understanding about human behavior in an interesting way with the perspective of social neurosciences. Mari Louhi-Lehtiö has an exceptional ability to bridge evidence-based theories and scientific knowledge to every-day situations making her trainings engaging and convincing.

Many of our corporate clients struggle with constant changes caused by markets. Their work requires flexibility and ability to change but at the same time persistence to reach the goals with selected strategies. In our own trainings we have seen how the perspectives borrowed from EASEL® have generated new insights among our corporate clients and, in turn, helped them improve their work."

Our Thinking

When your job is to help, guide, teach, heal or lead others, ET’s programs help you do your job more professionally, more effectively, with heart and less fatigue.

EASEL®, is a method for increasing well-being and success at work and in private life through strengthening Social Emotional Skills. EASEL® benefits any work with people and should be in every interaction as a parent.

EASEL®Facilitator training program is for everyone who works with people and wants to become better at it. Our target groups are professionals whose job is to lead, teach, motivate, coach, support, counsel, serve or heal others.

 

If you want to be well and successful both at work and in your personal life, EASEL® helps you re-calibrate your Social Emotional Skills to better match the demands of your work and today’s world. EASEL®Facilitator training program also adds to your professional toolbox an effective facilitation methodology for experiential social emotional learning or therapy (depending on your background education)

Our Mission

EASEL Training’s mission is to help you stay happy, balanced, successful and creative in both your personal and professional life through helping you strengthen your Emotional Competence.

Our Vision

In our vision, social emotional skills are consistently strengthened as part of all education and training, personal development, and professional continuing education. Children’s social emotional skills and all-round well-being depend on the social emotional skills and balance of the adults around them.

Our Values

  • Open dialogue
  • Honesty and transparency
  • Professionalism
  • Community

EASEL Training helps those, who want success working with people, and combine their careers and personal life.

© 2016 EASEL Training Oy.

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