People often ask me: "OK, Dr. Simon, so what is a Training of Trainers workshop? What happens? Who comes? Who should come? What can I do with this training?"

I will try to answer some of those questions:

1. Training of Trainers was set up for one basic reason: To help carry on the work of Values Realization, and to do that responsibly.
   
   
2. Ideally, people who get certified to be Values Realization trainers will eventually set up and run their own workshops based on our work: Workshops in VALUES REALIZATION and Workshops in SELF ESTEEM ENHANCEMENT. Then there have been highly acclaimed workshops and seminars in: FORGIVENESS, GETTING UNSTUCK, MAKING CHOICES, BOUNDARY SETTING, CREATING POSSIBILITIES, and unique workshops on RELATIONSHIPS, FATHERS AND SONS, FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS, FAMILY UNITY and perhaps workshops in all the other areas for which we have produced workshops and carried them out successfully.
   
   
3. People who have taken the Training of Trainers Sequence can state in their brochures that they have Trained with and been Certified by Dr. Sidney B. Simon.
   
   
4. Not everyone who takes the Trainers of Trainers workshop will plan to use the training to run their own workshops. However, the skills and tools you acquire at a Trainer of Trainers Workshop will help you in ANY kind of presentation you may have to make down through the years. And, let's face it, sooner or later you will be asked to make a speech, deliver a mini-workshop or simply contribute words to a meeting in some setting, or be part of a panel, a hearing or as a participant at a conference, somewhere, sometime, someplace.
   
   
5. The focus in the Trainer of Trainers is upon the acquisition of skills and tools. I try to pass on any secret, trick, strategy, sequence and workshop design I can. My staff and I are committed to spreading this work. We give away any and all of our magic that you can possibly extract from us in these delightful, hard working 5 day experiences.
   
   
6. One of the amazing things that happens in the Trainers Workshop is that you might just find the co-leader you've been searching for. You also get ample opportunities for joining a powerful network of other trainers. From this network, you get support, new ideas, inspiration and comraderie as you venture out into the world of leading your own workshops.
   
   
7. The Training of Trainers is NOT a personal growth workshop, per se, although since it is highly experiential, and many personal choices need to be confronted, it is full of excitement and healing. It is different from other Simon Workshops. The emphasis is on learning the skills of facilitating workshops. And as such, there are fewer opportunities to work further on some of the issues which were part of earlier Simon Workshops. But if you stop to think about some of the problems involved in clarifying who you are as a "trainer" (and this issue IS part of the design of The Training of Trainers) you will inevitably find yourself confronting some fascinating personal growth issues at the Trainers Workshop, too. Of course, there is music, and laughter, skin nourishment, validation envelopes, no negative criticism, safety, comfort and caring and all the other best parts of our standard workshop way of being with other workshoppers.
   
   
8. Each person who comes to the Training of Trainers gets a comprehensive TRAINERS MANUAL and just before we all leave, a Certificate that states that you are Certified and Trained by Dr. Sidney B. Simon. No one flunks. No one has to "please" the leader. We are committed to a self-selection process. You will get the training, and then, you will decide when you begin conducting workshops. Our experience is that people don't start until they are ready. Amazing idea. Sometimes, they just need more training and sometimes more belief in themselves.

So, what are some of the topics we take up in Trainers:

1. We try to clarify for each other some of these questions: Why do you want to train? How big a part of your life do you want your Training to be? What do you want to give because you are a trainer? What do you want to get? How often do you want to do it? How much money do you want to make from it? (I do not EVER take any kickback from the money you earn doing our workshops, if you are CERTIFIED as a TRAINER.)
   
   
2. We try to teach people the art of how to DESIGN A WORKSHOP: What comes first, what comes second. How to share everything we know about how you sequence strategies and workshop happenings? (And we give away OUR WORKSHOP LESSON PLANS.)
   
   
3. We show people the VAST NUMBER OF STRATEGIES in the VR movement. We learn how to present the strategies and how to invent new ones.
   
   
4. We talk about the logistical problems of conducting workshops.
   
   
5. We examine some of the "people" problems you run into when you lead workshops.
   
   
6. We talk about the care and feeding of a facilitator.
   
   
7. We share what we have learned about marketing workshops. And learn how to make up brochures and produce press releases and other marketing tools.
   
   
8. As part of the workshop, each participant, working with a co-leader, designs and presents a basic one hour workshop to other participants in the workshop. EVERY member of the workshop goes home with a printed copy of each workshop design. This is part of the way the networking happens.
   

We honestly believe that anyone who works with "people" will get a great deal from coming to The Training of Trainers experience. The emphasis on skills and tools will prove valuable. Even if you don't begin conducting your own workshops right away, this training will prove invaluable to you by simply giving you a new vision and an array of new possibilities for making your regular work more powerful.Feel free to call me and talk with me about any of these ideas. And if you would like to speak with someone who has been to Trainers, we can easily give you names. I know they would be glad to help you clarify whether or not you should attend.

My recommendation is: COME. This TRAINERS workshop in the past has only been given every other year. 2000 is a pivotal year. COME.


IF YOU NEED TO REACH ME: (413) 584-4382, FAX (413) 586-6633,

EMAIL compdr1@juno.com