Between Collapse and Emergence: Learning From Conflict in Turbulent Times

"That sense that we can just dislike each other and then dispose of each other when it gets too hard is the thing that keeps us stuck in these old systems.”

What if the problem isn’t conflict, but our inability to stay with it?

With over 15 years of experience and a background in mediation (Q. Med), adult education (MA), and Somatic Experiencing (SEP), Brook bridges the gap between systemic change and the human nervous system. Through coaching, training, and custom change processes, they help organizations transform power dynamics, psychological safety, and conflict into sources of possibility.

This episode explores why conflict is having a cultural “moment,” what actually happens in high-stakes relational breakdown, and why most of us were never taught the skills to navigate it.

In this conversation, Brook Thorndycraft shares their path into conflict work through transformative justice, mediation, and somatic practice.

At the core of this is a simple but challenging truth: we don’t get to get rid of each other. Learning how to stay, even when it’s hard, is essential to any future worth building.

bigwaves.ca

https://substack.com/@bigwavesbrook

LINKS:

Two Loops Model: complexsystemsframeworks.ca/framework/two-loop-model/

Deep Democracy: https://www.waterline.coop/

Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira: decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity/

Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs.