The Three Conversations: A Professional Intensive for Coaches & Helping Professionals

Why this program

You already help people. This is about the depth few ever reach.

Most of us in the helping professions are well trained in the first two conversations. We know how to listen, and we know how to run a structured process. But the third, the one where two people think together and something genuinely new appears, is rarely taught at all. It gets explained away as chemistry, as intuition, as the eventual reward of long experience.

This program takes the opposite view: generative dialogue is not a gift that some practitioners happen to be born with. It is a learnable way of being with another person. The Three Conversations exists to teach it, and to do so the only way that holds: by re-deepening the listening and coaching it quietly rests on.

Reflection→structured inquiry→co-creation

The curriculum

Three conversations, three weekends, one deepening arc.

You don't learn listening, then coaching, then dialogue as three separate boxes. Each weekend has its own focus, and each ends by stepping into dialogue at the depth that weekend has earned. The skills spiral; the horizon never moves.

I

Weekend One · October

Deep Listening

Reflection: the front door of every dialogue.

We rebuild person-centred listening to genuine mastery: accurate empathic reflection without a trace of parroting, the felt meaning beneath the words, presence made visible. You'll recover the discipline Carl Rogers proved and most of us have let erode, helping someone move without a single question, opinion, or piece of advice.

The four myths that pull a speaker out of their own flow
Reflecting essence, not transcript: precise yet succinct
Reading "what's the ask?" (relief, action, or meaning) and matching the conversation to the moment

Grounded in: The person-centred approach (Carl Rogers) · the core conditions · accurate empathic reflection

II

Weekend Two · November

Structured Coaching

Structured inquiry, toward an outcome the client owns.

We drill the exact places where even experienced coaches lose the thread: the great conversation that arrives nowhere, the reflection that says too much. You'll separate the topic from the outcome, co-create an explicit measure of success, move a person beyond their current thinking, then learn the masterful move of saying less and trusting the client to do the work.

ICF Competency 3: a clear session outcome and the structure to reach it
ICF Competency 7: evoking awareness about self, situation, and the desired outcome
The ACC → PCC → MCC deepening, from a wordy intervention to a clean, embodied one

Grounded in: ICF Core Competencies 3 & 7 · the GROW model · the ACC → PCC → MCC arc

III

Weekend Three · January

Generative Dialogue

Co-creation: thinking together at the edge of what's known.

Here we teach the third conversation directly: a relational, unhurried inquiry in which the helper offers their own inner material (an image, a memory, a metaphor) lightly and without attachment, in service of the other's unfolding. You'll work the full five-phase arc, add the developmental lens that explains why some struggles are thresholds rather than problems, and attend to the ethics, boundaries, and self-care this depth of work requires.

The I–Thou stance and the practice of "not-knowing"
Co-imagination: sparks thrown gently onto the woodpile
Recovering presence when dialogue goes sideways

Grounded in: Buber's I–Thou · dialogue (Bohm & Isaacs) · Kegan's adult development · third-generation coaching

How you'll learn

Practice, not theory about practice.

Demonstrate→ Deconstruct→ Practise→ Debrief

Real material, never role-play

You work on your own live questions and anonymized client cases. Authenticity is the whole point: it's what protects this work from becoming performance.

Triads and marker-based feedback

Speaker, helper, observer: roles rotate so you sit in each seat. Feedback is tied to specific ICF markers, so growth is concrete rather than impressionistic.

Practice pods between weekends

Standing peer groups of three or four meet for structured rounds. You'll record and self-assess one session each interval and keep an "edge journal" of what pulls you out of presence.

A held container, each day

Every day opens with a brief grounding (open mind, open heart, open will) and closes with a harvest circle. The form models the work it teaches.

This is the threshold where helping begins: the moment you sense that ordinary talk can no longer hold what someone is carrying. Jim Gavin

Who it's for

For practitioners who already do this work and want to go deeper.

Built for ICF-credentialed coaches, and equally for therapists, counsellors, social workers, clergy, health and wellness practitioners, and the leaders and HR professionals who hold real helping conversations every week.

ICF coaches Therapists & counsellors Social workers Clergy Health & wellness Leaders & HR

You'll get the most from it if you

Have foundational training or real experience in a helping role. This is a deepening intensive, not an introduction to coaching.
Are comfortable practising live and receiving direct, specific feedback.
Can commit to all three weekends and the between-weekend practice pods. The conversations build on one another.

Hosted by

Concordia's Centre for Human Flourishing.

The Three Conversations is hosted by the Centre for Human Flourishing at Concordia University, a hub working at the intersection of research and practice to help people move beyond coping toward flourishing.

The curriculum is built on Jim Gavin's three-conversations framework: the models, language, and decades of practice that shape every weekend.

The teaching team

Taught by the people who built the work.

One built the framework and helped shape how coaching is taught in Canada. The other studies, in fine detail, what actually happens inside a helping conversation. Together they bring the practice and the evidence behind it.

James (Jim) Gavin, PhD

Professor of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia · Director, Centre for Human Flourishing

Master Certified Coach (ICF) · Licensed Psychologist (Québec) · Author, Foundations of Professional Coaching

Jim Gavin built the framework this program teaches, and much of the ground beneath it. Across more than four decades at Concordia he helped architect the Human Systems Intervention graduate program and co-built one of North America's most respected coach-certification programs. His textbook Foundations of Professional Coaching (Human Kinetics, 2022) maps the ICF Core Competencies in depth and is widely treated as a standard reference in the field.

An ICF Master Certified Coach and licensed psychologist, he joins rigorous process with a long attention to presence, the body, and the human capacity to change, informed by decades of practice in aikido, iaido, and yoga.

Full profile →

Nicolò F. Bernardi, PhD

Coordinator, Centre for Human Flourishing, Concordia · Researcher & Coach

Professional Certified Coach (ICF · PCC) · PhD, Cognitive Neuroscience · MA, Human Systems Intervention

Nicolò Bernardi brings the evidence of what actually happens in a helping conversation. A cognitive neuroscientist and ICF-certified coach who has worked with more than a thousand clients, he co-authored some of the most detailed empirical studies to date of coaches' real verbal behaviour: the very moves this program drills, from precise reflection to saying less.

His practice draws on mindfulness and DBT-informed work in emotion regulation, communication, and decision-making under pressure, and he leads public programming at the Centre at the intersection of research and practice.

Website →

At a glance

The practical shape of it.

A small cohort, three intensive weekends in person, and a structured rhythm of practice in between. Everything is designed to put the work into your hands and to deepen your experience as a coach.

Format: Three in-person weekends · Saturday & Sunday · full days [9:00–17:00 TBC]
Dates: W1: October 2026 · W2: November 2026 · W3: January 2027 [exact dates TBC]
Contact hours: 39 hours of coach development education across the three weekends
Location: Concordia University, Montréal · in person [campus & room TBC]
Tuition: $2,500 CAD [deposit & payment terms TBC]
Cohort: Small and capped, to protect the quality of practice [cap TBC]
Included: All six days of instruction · the between-weekend practice-pod structure · a full course workbook [other inclusions TBC]

Tuition

One fee. The whole intensive.

$2,500CAD

For all three weekends, 39 hours of coach development education.

Six full days of in-person instruction across three weekends
Your standing between-weekend practice pod
A full course workbook and practice materials
Marker-based feedback and coaching throughout

Apply now →

[Deposit, payment schedule, and any early-bird or group rates: TBC]

Questions

Before you register

Do I need an ICF credential to attend?

No. The program is built for ICF-credentialed coaches and welcomes other experienced helping professionals: therapists, counsellors, social workers, clergy, health and wellness practitioners, and leaders or HR professionals. What matters is that you already hold real helping conversations.

Will I earn ICF Continuing Coach Education hours?

We have submitted the program to the ICF for Continuing Coach Education accreditation, and it is currently under review. We expect it to be approved for approximately 39 hours across the three weekends, though the hours are confirmed only once accreditation is granted.

Is this an introduction to coaching?

No. It's a deepening intensive for people already doing the work. We deliberately re-open listening and coaching, not as review, but to close the gaps that persist even in seasoned practitioners, and we use them as the launch pad for generative dialogue.

What is the time commitment between weekends?

Between each weekend you'll meet in a standing practice pod of three or four for structured rounds, record and self-assess one session, and keep a short reflective "edge journal." Plan for a little reading and reflection between sessions as well. [Estimated weekly hours TBC.]

What if I have to miss a weekend?

The three weekends build directly on one another, so full attendance is expected and is part of what makes the cohort work. [Make-up and cancellation policy TBC.]

Join the next cohort

Take a seat in the next cohort.

Places are limited and the work is intimate. Apply now and we'll be in touch with confirmed dates, next steps, and how to reserve your place.