Barbara Barnes is a conflict resolution and prevention professional, specializing in consultation, coaching, systems design and mediation. Barbara’s extensive experience in the fields of personal and professional development have afforded her an almost seamless understanding of what her clients experience and need. Her ability to connect in this way contributes to a shorter learning curve when seeking solutions and putting preventative systems into place.
She offers her services with significant experience in project management, construction management, property management, adult probation and parole, educational settings, community mental health services for consumers with severe mental illness, non-profit boards, strategic planning, neighborhood relations, and counseling clients using mindfulness insights, federal and local contracting for domestic abuse shelters and community corrections settings.
Barbara is a graduate of Professional Skills Seminars through the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She has studied how chronic conflict disrupts systems and how to develop systems that promote true harmony and prevent ineffective conflict. She is able to help clients customize responses to challenges in order to create more ease as well as enjoyable and productive work environments.
She has studied mediation at the advanced level, focusing her learning in the areas of facilitative and transformative mediation. She helps mediation participants to recognize and find solutions from their interests and needs rather than from positional directives. Her training in somatic psychotherapy compliments her facilitation practice with skills including mindfulness and deep listening. Barbara also trained in “non-violent communication.” Additionally, Barbara keeps current on the advances in neuroscience which inform the fields of conflict resolution, mediation, group facilitation, psychology and organizational effectiveness.
Barbara pays careful attention through a practice of deep listening, allowing her to understand her clients’ emotions without taking on their heightened energy. She approaches the challenges presented during mediation or training sessions with a well-honed practice of grounded and pragmatic facilitation, supporting solutions for the whole person and/or organization. She strongly believes in supporting the discovery of solutions that fit throughout an organizational system, family, groups and even individuals.
A life-long learner, influenced by her experiences as a single mother, her professional lives, and since-resolved health challenges, Barbara continues to be endlessly curious about the resilience and possibilities of the human spirit. She practices mindfulness daily, hikes on remote trails (with her bear spray at the ready) and reads and listens to an eclectic array of books, music and podcasts. She attends cutting edge trainings and makes time for learning whenever possible.