Workshops

Orella Associates offers the following workshops to corporations, professional organizations, senior care providers, and community groups. Each workshop can be conveniently tailored to your audience in terms of length of session and detail of content. Contact Orella Associates (info@orellaassociates.com) to find out more information or to schedule a workshop.

• What do I want to be when I grow up? Exploring post-retirement opportunities.

This workshop will guide participants in recognizing different retirement models. The idea is to broaden one’s perception of retirement planning by reflecting on one’s interests and passions and strengths and experiences. Participants are then shown how to combine these factors in ways to discover the multitude of personal and professional opportunities before them.

• Should I stay or should I go? Comparing moving and renovation costs.

Participants will be guided through the process of evaluating the personal and financial costs of aging-in-place versus moving. They will be shown how to evaluate housing alternatives and to consider how they relate to personal safety and satisfaction.

• Finding Nirvana: Beginning the search for the “perfect” place to live.

This workshop will be guide individuals and couples through the process of evaluating housing and community analyses to reveal locations that meet personal and professional goals. Participants will consider housing units, medical services, educational opportunities, and recreational activities in various locations. They will be encouraged to see how one’s location will dramatically determine how one lives.

• When it’s about more than stuff: Addressing family conflict during downsizing.

This workshop is for those who are considering relocating and must face the task of downsizing their possessions. This can be a stressful process full of personal strife and family conflict. Participants will be shown how to separate personal emotions from family goals, to recognize the underlying issues that often get attached to objects, and to see how long-standing family communication patterns play a role in decision making processes.

• “Who gets Gramma’s yellow pie plate? A guide to passing on personal possessions.”

Developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota Extension Service, this program is designed to teach families how to make decisions and motivate them using a process that’s proven effective. It covers a multitude of topics including, Families and Personal Property Inheritance, Sensitivity of Transferring Personal Property, Deciding What You Want to Accomplish, Determining What Fair Means, Identifying Special Objects, Distribution Options and Consequences, Establishing Ground Rules, and Managing Conflicts.

• Talk early. Talk often. Strategies for communicating with siblings about care for mom and dad.

No one likes to think about the time when their mom or dad may become ill or get injured and need help. However, those families that explicitly talk in advance about who could help out and how make more informed decisions and experience less conflict during times of caregiving. Come hear strategies for productive communication in which all parties learn to “own their emotions” and speak without blame or anger.

• Happy holidays or miserable mayhem? Straight talk about surviving your next family gathering.
  

Any time that we gather with family, old habits and emotions reappear. Topics or family members that we once avoided are thrust back into our lives. Old rivalries or inequities quickly get remembered. What are we to do? Come gain an understanding of why family conflict occurs at these events and learn ways for mitigating its impact, so that you may actually enjoy your next birthday party, wedding reception, or Thanksgiving dinner.