The Ojai Foundation :: Council :: Spiritual Practice

As Spiritual Practice

THE MISSION of the Center for Council Training (CCT) is to bring the ways of council into the cultural mainstream through a worldwide network of council practitioners.

The CCT Network of council practitioners offers trainings and develops programs involving council practices in schools, places of business, non-profit organizations, communities and families all over the world. From its original base in Southern California, CCT's dedicated community of council trainers, facilitators, program coordinators and consultants has expanded to include centers of activity or "pods" in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, New York, New England, Europe and Israel. These pods function interdependently and support a variety of local trainings and council-based programs in their areas.

By bringing the council practices of devout listening and speaking from the heart into our cultural mainstream, the CCT Network helps to inspire young and old to remember the timeless synergy of the "listening circle" and to bring collaborative wisdom to contemporary challenges. Through authentic communication, council provides a more compassionate context for co-visioning, decision-making, understanding and resolving conflicts, embracing cultural diversity and healing the fragmentation so prevalent in our present world.

Over the years, CCT's programs in the business community have included those at Southern California Edison, Motorola, Xerox, Computer Management Services and an automobile dealership in Arizona. Community based council trainings and programs have been conducted at Spirit Rock, the Reiki Alliance, the Upaya Center, the Peacemaker Order the Zen Centers in Los Angeles and Santa Monica and the Threshold Foundation. After launching a council-based life-skills program at the Crossroads Independent School in 1983, the CCT Network introduced a similar program in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1992 at Palms Middle School. Since then a variety of public elementary, middle and high schools throughout the country have initiated council projects.

The CCT pod in Israel is bringing council to a number of schools (including one for special needs students), communities, women's empowerment organizations throughout the Country and recently launched a co-existence project involving training groups of Arabs and Jews in the techniques of council-based cultural integration and conflict resolution. The European Pod has conducted council trainings in Venice, Milan, Rome and Munich, some in affiliation with the International Peacemaker Community.