Fighting, feeling and forging in 2025: This year's course schedule
If you want to learn to navigate conflict, develop greater emotional literacy or become a better coach, here are some ways to learn with me in the year ahead.
This year I’m taking the unprecedented step of publishing a full course list for 2025, instead of announcing new course dates whenever I feel like it as I have done previously.
This is in response to the increasing demand for training over the past 12 months both for my How to Fight Well course but also for coaching and coaching training.
I’ve been teaching conflict and communication skills for ten years now, and I’ve noticed that there is a growing appetite for learning the skills required to deal with difficulty.
This is heartening given that often this is the work people neglect until the sh*t has really hit the fan and things are very difficult to navigate as a result.
In response to other shifts and pressures in wider society, I’m launching an emotional literacy skills course for men. It’s something I’ve been sitting on for a while, and now it’s out in the open.
Below you’ll also find private courses that I provide as in-house programmes for teams that need to improve their ability to navigate relationships and support one another, along with opportunities for coaching and craft.
All of my courses are run on a Pay What You Can basis. This means that when you come on one of my courses we agree a fee that feels manageable and appropriate, which we’re both happy with.
Having switched to this model 12 months ago, I’ve found that it works much better for everyone - making the work much more accessible for participants while meeting my needs.
Open courses
How to Fight Well: Conflict navigation skills
Conflict is a natural and normal part of everyday life.
Every conflict you encounter offers unique insight that can radically improve working and personal relationships, along with the quality of what you create with others.
But that insight is only available if you can sit with it long enough to listen to what’s going on beneath the noise and tension.
Taught over two months, in small groups we explore models, tools and personal practice that improve your ability to stay steady when everything is going off, unpicking difficulty and finding creative ways to move forward.
Now in its eighth year, this course is taken by coaches, facilitators and team leaders, CEOs, founders and parents and partners, who recognise the value of healthy conflict.
To find out more email hello@maxstjohn.com
Spring Cohort: 25th February, 11th March, 25th March, 1st April - 12-2pm UK time
Summer Cohort: 3rd June, 17 June, 1st July, 15th July - 10.30am-1.30pm UK time
Autumn Cohort: 9th September, 23rd September, 7th October, 21st October 11-2pm UK time
More Feeling, Less Fighting: Emotional literacy for blokes
Expectations of men have changed dramatically and exponentially over the past three decades.
Growing up, men of today had to rely on male role models who were never expected to even have a basic level of emotional literacy.
Now they find themselves expected to be sensitive to their emotional needs, along with those of colleagues, partners and children. At the same time they are navigating a culture that is pushing back hard on a male-dominated society and asking men to change with it.
It’s a lot and often we don’t have the tools to do it well. The cost can be massive for us and those that need our support, or simply want us to be healthy and happy.
This new course teaches you how to understand and articulate your internal world so that you can connect better with others and take care of your mental health.
You’ll also learn why, as men, we can find ourselves in conflict and how to navigate the difficult feelings and tricky conversations that can often damage our relationships.
For more information email hello@maxstjohn.com
Spring Cohort: 25th February, 11th March, 25th March, 1st April - 6-8pm
Summer Cohort: 3rd June, 17 June, 1st July, 15th July - 6-8pm
Autumn Cohort: 9th September, 23rd September, 7th October, 21st October - 6-8pm
Private courses
Coaching skills: Fundamental models and tools
Most people who lead teams and run organisations find themselves supporting others while having had little-to-no formal training in coaching.
This two-month course is for managers, team leaders and founders who might have some experience of coaching but know that they need to develop their skills and confidence.
You will learn models and tools that to give people the space to develop their own sense of clarity, confidence and agency.
You work towards developing teams that can operate with less stress, better inter-personal understanding and greater independence.
This is an in-house course, meaning that you can commission it for one or more teams within your organisation, at a date and cost that fits with your organisational schedule.
In the past this course has been taught to teams of managers and service leads in organisations that include mental health charities and expansion-stage tech startups, where the pressures of demand and growth mean working in busy, complex and often stressful environments.
Feedback from previous courses:
“This has given me a real insight on how I currently coach people, how it can be better and how I can create more impact.”
“I recommend the course not just for learning about managing a coaching relationship but also for learning about yourself, professionally, and understanding your own needs.”
“This didn't feel like any of our other training sessions - we were vulnerable in front of our colleagues and admitted we aren't perfect. Max as a trainer was very easy to talk to and I learned some great coping mechanisms for both work and personal life.”
If you’d like to discuss putting a programme in place for your team, email me at hello@maxstjohn.com
Coaching and coaching intensives
I continue to offer one-to-one coaching to CEOs and founders, senior managers and team leads within a massive variety of organisational settings.
My approach is person-centred, giving everyone I work with a calm and non-judgemental space to explore their challenges and find new insight.
I work on a three, six and 12 month basis which involves personal practice between sessions, to build both knowledge, confidence and greater skills.
I currently have a small number of spaces available, if you need support.
This year I’m also combining coaching with my other professional practice, blacksmithing.
Set over two-to-three days, I offer coaching sessions alongside time working with me in my full, professional forge based in mid-Devon, near Exeter.
Craft allows the mind and body to drop into a very different mode of being, freeing up other parts of ourselves to see new perspectives and find steady ground.
The satisfaction of learning new skills, while being in a quiet, natural setting away from normal life creates the conditions for impactful coaching conversations.
My forge is based near Exeter, in Mid-Devon, with accommodation around the corner in our village.
You can read more about it here and email me at hello@maxstjohn.com if it’s something you feel you could benefit from