“This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know… that the soul exists and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.” -- Mary Oliver


Personal Growth & Development:

Offerings include:

Retreats

“When you make friends with the present moment, you feel at home no matter where you are.” From Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

Jim and Pat Francek are seasoned retreat facilitators who use dialogue, poetry, music, storytelling and periods of reflection to create a powerful experience for participants. They offer decades of experience in moving individuals and groups to a deeper sense of purpose. They create a safe space where individuals can awaken to the voice within. Trained in Appreciative Inquiry and experienced with “Circle of Trust” retreats they are prepared to assist participants to come “full circle” from their fast pace life to a place of centeredness and wholeness. 

Living on Purpose:

Appreciative Inquiry applied to Our Lives!

IMAGINE.... what would it be like to awake in the morning feeling fully alive and inspired?

· Discover how to use Appreciative Inquiry in everyday living to create a life beyond your wildest dreams!

· See beyond your current story and to create a new story that supports your personal sense of purpose!

· Discover the power of APPRECIATION & GRATITUDE as a path for fulfillment and effectiveness!

· Expand your ability to ask appreciative questions, and use them effectively in internal and external conversations !

· Learn a simple 3 step process for applying Appreciative Living in any situation for generating JOY  and positive living!

See EVENTS for upcoming schedule.

Full Circle: Coming Home™

In the stillness and beauty of the forest, this three day experience is designed to engage individuals at the core of their sense of self within a deep sensing of the present. It has been said that we live in a state of “continuous partial attention”. What that means is that as we are working at our computers, our office phone rings, a colleague comes to our desk for help and our sick child calls from school on our cell phone. Today… many of us run from pillar to post from one multi-tasking experience to another. When this is done for an extended period of time the fabric of our soul gets shredded. It is easy to wander from our personal sense of purpose. 

It is our hope that this experience of “making stop” in a natural setting with soulful travelers will assist us to reconnect to the place we call home. In a world that uses feedback to give us the “bad news”, we will experience what it means to be in touch with the “good news” of our strengths, our connectedness to all of creation and our sense of Great Mystery. Many of our processes will take place in the beauty of natural surroundings. Nature has a way to teach and heal us. By making stop, reflecting on the big questions and entering an experience of dialogue with others on this journey we will learn much about that place inside of us called “home”.

Rabbi Saul Rubin has said: “We have stories to tell, stories that provide wisdom about the journey of life. What more do we have to give one another than our “truth” about our human adventure as honestly and openly as we know how?”   These stories are the result of the many circles we engage or create in our life. The circles we live in make up the fabric and texture of our life. This experience is created to assist you in engaging your story and deciding what new chapters you will write going forward.

What’s Next? ™  

No matter what our age, we are increasingly moving through major phases of our lives without taking the time to take stock of who we are and whether we moving in the direction of our greatest opportunity. The difference between people who reach their desired levels of success and those that don’t… is often whether they have taken time to create a personal vision and a plan for reaching it. Some are in the mid-point of their careers and are asking “is this all there is?’ Some are approaching retirement with the realization that they may be living for another two or three decades and wonder “am I ready for the rocking chair or the golf course?” Blessed with varying degrees of health, time and resources each of these groups can expand their horizons by considering what they would like to leave as their personal legacy. Each of these groups can be engaged in the discovery of their greatest sense of success.

Jim & Pat have designed a powerful three day experience that engages an individual or couple in creating a personal vision and action plan. Their work flows from an application of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) philosophy and process. AI has as a central operating principle that within every individual, couple or group there is a positive core of strengths. When an individual or couple explores and discovers what those strengths are, they are in position to create a powerful vision for the emerging next phase of their life. Participants are encouraged to hold positive images of the future which will influence the decisions and actions they take in the present. This process is a proven, effective path for creating the future they most desire.

Resiliency the Power to Co-create our Future™

This two-day offering is designed to assist individuals and groups to address the iterative waves of social and economic change emerging in our culture today. At a time when these waves are pounding us with the need to make transformative change some of us freeze and become victims of the change. Others rise to the challenges and use their strengths to leverage all the emerging moments of opportunity. This workshop is designed as a high energy focused experience that produces direction and hope for those who participate. (For information see EVENTS or call 203.513.2352.)

Executive Coaching

Leaders today face a complex path through all the expectations of their personal and professional roles... Having a trustworthy coach can be the difference between just surviving and thriving. Our coaching is characterized by forming the critical provocative questions that move our clients to the place of their own personal wisdom. Trust and respect are the basis of our relationships.

TAVA, through its senior partners and colleagues, offers focused strengths based coaching assisting their clients to achieve their vision of success. Our individual coaching offers focused dialogue at critical junctures in an executive’s journey. Quantum shifts are frequently experienced.

Jim and Pat Francek, and their colleagues are seasoned executive coaches prepared to assist their clients through the vicissitudes of change, shifts in organizational culture, relocation, conflict and expanded scope of work. Their approach of engaging individuals and teams around their sense of their emerging future is guaranteed both to be stimulating and enriching.