You can also listen to this podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Courtney Smith, a coach, facilitator, and dear friend who is schooled and trained in many different modalities: Conscious Leadership Group, Byron Katie’s work, the Alexander Technique, and the Enneagram. She is one of my favorite thought partners because of the range of her intelligence and the structure of her mind: She was a math econ major who happens to have a J.D. from Yale and a masters in public health from NYU. Before taking a turn toward the mystical, she was a McKinsey consultant. So in short, she’s a multi-hyphenate Renaissance woman whose bookshelf looks much like mine. You might remember Courtney from our conversation on Pulling the Thread about the Enneagram—if you missed it, there’s a link in the show notes—but today, we’re going to talk about Stephen Karpman’s Drama Triangle: What it is, how to know when you’re in it, and how to move past it…while recognizing that you’ll be in another one soon enough. We also do a little bit of live coaching and role-playing, so you all will really get a sense of how this powerful tool works.
Meanwhile, if you want to work with me and Courtney, together, we’re hosting a workshop from May 17-19 at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, North Carolina. It’s called “Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness” and will be a combination of On Our Best Behavior and Courtney’s techniques. Honestly, I can’t wait—I hope you’ll all join us. The link to sign up is also in the episode page, or the link in bio on my Instagram account.
MORE FROM COURTNEY SMITH:
My Workshop with Courtney at AOLRC: “Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness”
First Pulling the Thread episode: “The Practical Magic of the Enneagram”
Courtney’s Website
ALSO MENTIONED:
Elise’s Substack Newsletters:
TRANSCRIPT:
(Edited slightly for clarity.)
ELISE LOEHNEN: Courtney, I'm excited for this, as you know, because I love talking to you and I love being in a women's group with you and watching you work. And we have the same taste in teachers and principals and ideas and concepts. So today, what I'm hoping to do is have you take us through some core components of the people might recognize from the conscious leadership group. We're gonna do facts versus stories Above and below the line and then we're gonna do some drama triangling. Real time.