Empowering courageous connections through neuroscience
As a society, we are capable of so much, yet we are at an inflection point dominated by primal, regressive tribalism. Cancel culture, political violence, and belief in misinformation, for example, are manifestations of this. No society can thrive without meaningful discourse about the challenges it encounters. Beyond Primal uses brain-based holistic dialogue to make meaningful, generative dialogue possible even about our most divisive issues. Our goal is to enable a more empathic stance toward those with whom we disagree.
When we look at the brain science, we have more in common than we think.
What we do
Citizenship Development Workshops
At Beyond Primal, we host carefully facilitated workshops where we:
• Develop participants’ ability to redirect the same primal psychological forces that divide us to instead build bridges across seemingly insurmountable differences.
• Equip people with the skills and resources to have a reflective civil discourse and generative dialogue about particularly difficult challenges facing society.
• Guide participants through the process of Brain-based Holistic Dialogue to begin reframing how we think about and work through thorny societal problems.
Educational Programming
We partner with high schools and universities to offer experiential and developmentally appropriate learning programs that:
Help students better understand and value differing viewpoints.
Build capacity for building bridges between different stakeholders in an effort to generate novel solutions to thorny problems.
Develop citizens who can overcome the primal behaviors that get in the way of a well functioning, democratic society.
“...this course has taught me to question surface-level reactions and to explore the psychological process behind them.” - High School Student
“...this course has taught me to question surface-level reactions and to explore the psychological process behind them.” - High School Student
Testimonials
"...Beyond Primal taught me about how the brain responds when it feels threatened, how our identity plays into our emotional responses, and how our environment affects our perception of the world." - High School Student
"...Beyond Primal taught me about how the brain responds when it feels threatened, how our identity plays into our emotional responses, and how our environment affects our perception of the world." - High School Student
“I will remind myself that if there is tension, it is partially because I need to work on not letting my SCARF reactions get in the way of my open-mindedness towards opposing perspectives because the discussion cannot be truly beneficial unless I take the time necessary to let those reactions pass before I make my next point..” - High School Student
“I will remind myself that if there is tension, it is partially because I need to work on not letting my SCARF reactions get in the way of my open-mindedness towards opposing perspectives because the discussion cannot be truly beneficial unless I take the time necessary to let those reactions pass before I make my next point..” - High School Student
"Beyond Primal gave my high school students insights and tools to approach difficult conversations in ways that deepened their empathy for others while also helping them to witness their own reactions to polarized topics." - High School Teacher
"Beyond Primal gave my high school students insights and tools to approach difficult conversations in ways that deepened their empathy for others while also helping them to witness their own reactions to polarized topics." - High School Teacher
