What is assertiveneness?

Assertiveneness means expressing opinions, feelings and beliefs in a direct, honest and socially adequate way, without affecting other person’s rights and with defense of personal rights.

With participation in the training:
→ You will reduce a feeling of anxiety, stress, jitters, social shyness..
→ You strengthen selfconfidence and selfrespect,
→ You learn how to stand up for yourself while you respect the other person’s rights,
→ You develop your communication skills,
→ You learn techniques of giving and receiving the constructive critisism and praise,
→ You learn to believe in yourself more and to use your potentials better,
→ You learn avoiding manipulation and problem solving techniques.

The topics covered:
• Introduction; differences between pasive, assertive, pasive-aggressive and aggressive behaviour.
• Assertive rights (ex. You have a right to make a mistake; You have a right to say “I don’t know”; You have a right to say: “I don’t care” etc) and rights on the other side of a mirror (all that matter for you, matter for others too). To take responsibility for your own decisions and behaviours and to let others be responsible for their own decisions and behaviours as the basis of assertiveness.
• The basics about emotions using ABC model from theoretical REBT framework. The causes of nonassertiveness- identifying the problem- areas of nonassertiveness (work with thoughts and emotions that prevent us from being assertive)
• The roles that prevent us from behaving assertive (a lifesaver, a victim and a persecutor). Understanding the dynamics of drama triangl. Differences between a caring man and a man with a lifesaver role)
• The types of assertiveness and practicing on concrete examples of how to act in different sitations and which type of aasertiveness to use.
• The types of messages we send to each other (unrealistic and realistic messages to a being and behaviour).
• What does manipulation include? Recognizing and avoiding techniques. Practicing on concrete examples of how to act in situations when someone tries to manipulate with us.
• The basics of assertive problem solving.

Working methods
The training covers all of the topics mentioned above and is usually organized in 8 meetings, held once a week. One meeting lasts 2 to 2,5 hours, depending on the group dynamics. There is a total of 20 hours of training. There is a possibilty of an agreement to lessen the number of meetings and to increse the duration of the meetings. The number of participants per a group can be at least 6 and a maximum is 12 members. The group members are not changing during the training.
The meetings are organized as workshops. First part of the workshop meeting is devoted to theoretical part and the second part on discussion and/or practical work (demonstrations, games, modeling, role play exercises, disucssions, homeworks etc. ) The training leader prepares materials (a script) and after each meeting, gives the script about the topic that was covered during that meeting to the participants.

About the training leader
The training will be led by Snezana Jondza, a Psychology graduate and Transactional analysis advisor (biography)