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4th BIG BERRY Mastermind 2018: Mireille Van Bremen

 Credit: BB team

Building trust in personal and business relationships

We were very pleased to welcome the creative and smiling Mireille Van Bremen, our 4th BB Mastermind host, at BIG BERRY Kolpa River on the 29th of May 2018. She took the time to visit us after a trip to her native country, to share her experiences, drawings and knowledge and to talk during this very first session of “Building trust in personal and business relationships”, about “Prioritizing connection and open-hearted living”.

"Sometimes we analyse people without listening to them"

Mireille van Bremen, originally from the Netherlands, has been living in Slovenia since 2006 and owns her company: Empathic Pathway. She works with entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world who are passionate about communication, empathy, leadership, creativity, collaboration and peace by supporting them in getting their message across empathically and visually. She aspires to use her 20 years of knowledge and experience in the field of Visual Communication and Nonviolent Communication, to get people on to understand her views in order to build respectful relationships and mutual collaborations. She is usually hired as a visual facilitation trainer & coach, a graphic recorder or as a communication trainer & coach.

BBmastermind Mireille Van Bremen 2 BBmastermind Mireille Van Bremen 1

Credit: BB team

The thing that Mireille is most proud of would be her skill to empathize with herself which she has learnt especially in the past years which helps her to be very resilient and to respond to situations as they occur, because it is not always easy as a foreigner to live abroad and to run a business.

"Building trust starts with the trust in yourself"

On the evening of May 29th we were all sitting together on the terrasse of the BIG BERRY Kolpa River resort when Mireille started her talk by asking the following questions: “Could you share a moment in which you felt a disconnect? A moment when you expected something to happen to you but it didn’t happen? A moment in which you said yes because of fear? And a moment in which you decided to cease a relationship with someone?” After few minutes of sharing, Mireille started to talk about how to prioritize connection in a communicative situation by using graphic reporting. With drawings and images, she showed the 5 D’s of disconnection, when people use energy by fighting and arguing instead of trying to stay connected and understand each other: Denial, Deserved-oriented language, Diagnosis, Demand and Discounting.

After a little break, the talk resumed with a little game “pick a card and describe what you see”. By using this game, Mireille wanted to explain us the difference between observation and interpretation. People are different and so are the responses to disconnection that we can have, such as compassion, empathy or acceptance. It was a great sharing and introspective moment for everyone present. The talk was concluded with a quote by Mireille: “When emotion is strong, pause is long” and a practice to takeaway: W.A.I.T (What Am I Thinking/ Talking/ Telling Tipping?)

"I enjoy being here in nature, it helps me to self-connect and I also really enjoy the way I have been received by the people who work here as well as the place itself. It’s cozy, very pleasant and peaceful"

 BBmastermind Mireille Van Bremen 7 BBmastermind Mireille Van Bremen 8

Credit: BB team

 

5th BIG BERRY Mastermind:

Arné Verhoef will be our fifth BB Mastermind of the 2018 season. We are glad to welcome him to the following session on June 3rd. The trained biologist and farmer from South Africa will share his knowledge on the topic “How hemp can play an important role in human health”.

 

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By Augustin Martinez