Not all classes are scheduled each semester, so be sure to bookmark this page and check back often to review our schedule and see what new learning adventures we are offering.

Courses, classes, workshops, and retreats are listed under one of Hoophole's three main divisions of learning:

Scroll down the list and pick  the adventures in learning you want to experience!  Click on any of the REGISTER buttons below each course description and you will view all your easy registration options:  online, mail, fax, or phone.  Whatever option you choose, it will be handled safely and securely.

$20/person

HeartSpeak
Within the emotional fabric of your life is a pattern as unique as your fingerprint. Only you can unravel your pattern's meaning. Only you can write the words and images that speak of your personal heritage and humanity. HeartSpeak guides you toward rediscovering and reclaiming the power of your silenced voice of authentic Self expression.  It is your true voice, the one that will never deceive you because it has never learned to lie.

The spontaneous writing HeartSpeak encourages will connect your inner and outer worlds and integrates the paths of action and reflection.  This isn't the kind of writing you were expected to do in English class. This natural writing expresses your own feelings with strength and simplicity -- without judgment or criticism.  It combines journal writing, guided meditation techniques, and hands-on experiential activities into a dynamic 5-step process: Awareness, Acceptance, Action, Alteration, and Assimilation.

Creative Cooking by Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch and Taste
Think you’re not creative? Develop your flair for using food ingredients in interesting combinations in everything from soups and salads to desserts. Discover your own unique creative approach to preparing meals and menus. This class encourages you to experiment with flavor, texture and color combinations that provide endless variety and interest. Create menu themes beyond Italian, Mexican, or Oriental and select items that work together and compliment the whole. Learn the value of comparison and contrast in defining the sensory qualities of the foods you prepare. 

You will learn how to create exciting, enticing presentations by thoughtfully using your sensory awareness to produce surprisingly simple yet appealing foods. If you have personal preferences or flavors and aromas that are particularly satisfying to you, try using them in combinations that are sure to impress. Learn how to use the best each season has to offer to create intensely flavorful and satisfying culinary experiences. 

Using recipes as basic guides, you will experiment by going beyond the "rules" to create even better expressions of the basic theme or concept. The ingredients you choose to make your creation unique reflect your flair for using your senses and your willingness to experiment. Unusual or unexpected flavor notes can really add interest to your "work". Like an artist who adds a splash of unexpected color in a painting, you will discover how to transform everyday food preparation into your own signature creative expression.

Dates and times arranged by request with a minimum two-week notice
email Hoophole at hoophole@kohlquest.com for additional information
$40/person (includes $10 materials fee)

Do We Speak the Same Language?
Ever find yourself communicating with another person and you are absolutely sure the two of you are NOT speaking the same language? This comprehensive program shows you how to accurately identify your preferred communication style, and how to adapt it to match the expectations of others whose styles are different than yours.  Knowing how to match your way of communicating to others' communication preferences gives you a priceless advantage in successfully getting your opinions, ideas, and feelings across to others -- at work, at home, at play, or anywhere who need to interface with people.

Within the unforgettable embrace of the Circle of Stones gathering, you will find that woman as you follow a time-honored path of transition into a full awareness of how to joyously live in a perfect balance between your intuitive capacity for compassion and creative power. 

You will walk the ancient feminine ground of your Stone Woman. 
You will meet your La Que Sabe ... the One Who Knows. 

There are nine steps on this path — nine challenges to be met —  before a woman can be fully in touch with her true feminine soul.  Few women have ever ventured beyond the first two steps.  But in the Circle of Stones, you will experience all nine steps of the archetypal transformation that celebrates the mystery and magnificence that is Woman — not the woman of pop culture or social expectations, but the woman illuminated by the wisdom that resides deep within her bones. 

Climb a mountain.  Crack the glass ceiling.  Raise a child.  Each is its own courageous act.  Yet there is no greater act of courage than to rise above closed minds in search of an inner strength for yourself that can never again be silenced or denied.  Circle of Stones is all about reclaiming the intuitive voice and strength that have always been within you since you were born.  Each woman who walks the Stone Woman path does so embraced by the love, support, and encouragement of those women who share her Circle.

    DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION
 

The Beast in the Closet :: Emotional Abuse

For a country that promotes compassion, human rights and Christian values, the statistics on domestic violence in the United States are appalling.

• Every 15 seconds a woman is physically beaten in her home.  Every 15 seconds!
• Over 683,000 women are forcibly raped every year; that's 1,871 a day ... 78 each hour ... over 1 per minute.
• According to the Silent Witness National Initiative, North Carolna ranks #7 among all 50 states for having the highest number of domestic violence homicides permillion population.  South Carolina ranks #2. Every number that becomes an abuse and violence statistic represents one woman's life at risk.
  

Get ready for an unforgettable inside look at what distinguishes emotional abuse, how it is often misdiagnosed by counseling professionals and how to identify the three types of emotional abuse – psychological, financial and spiritual.  You will learn the characteristics that identify both the victim and perpetrator of physical and emotional abuse while exposing the myths clouding our understanding of this silent predator.  If you currently are enduring some form of abuse or violence, or know someone who is, this presentation delivers life-affirming information about what you can do to protect yourself and get out of harm’s way.

$20/person

Different Strokes for Different Folks
We’re not all standing on the same rock, looking at the world from the same vantage point. Your success at getting your opinions or points of view across to others depends on knowing the individual values that motivate other people, and how those values conflict or compliment your points of view. 

Based on more than 25 years of research by Dr. Clare Graves, this presentation takes an in-depth look at six predominant values present in all human group activities, from corporations and churches to social clubs and families -- six values identified as:

• tribalistic
• egocentric
• conformist
• manipulative
• sociocentric
• existential

Hear Ye, Hear Me
We all hear. Hearing is one of our five senses.  But listening is an active, learned skill, one we too often take for granted. Yet no attribute is more critical in building dynamic, compassionate relationships than the ability to genuinely listen. This program offers practical tools to help you identify and avoid those obstacles present in everyday conversations that prevent effective listening.

Through constructive (and often hilarious) demonstrations of real communication breakdowns, you will discover new techniques and skills to improve your ability to actively listen -- how to be sure that you understand precisely what a speaker actually said.  And you'll receive a richer understanding of what it means to engage in genuine dialogue with another human being.

There will be time to practice the effective listening techniques covered in class, including how to use the talking stick, a centuries old approach to effective listening that establishes the best possible environment for successful dialoguing between two people. All the listening skills you will be learning are applicable to almost any situation where you want or need to exchange your ideas, thoughts, or feelings with another person.

$20/person
 

REGISTER

Conflict Dynamics in Personal Relationships
Any relationship worth its salt will have conflict.  Most of us are intimidated by conflict because we don't know how to manage it.  Uncomfortable and unsure of our options, we too often are left with little more than a primal sense of "fight or flight." The horrifying statistics on abuse and domestic violence are sad evidence of our lack of skills in managing confrontative or combative situations.

This one night a week six-week course takes an in-depth look into how conflicts are created and how you can avoid, resolve, and manage them.  You will  learn how words can heal or hurt, how to become a better listener, and how to manage the kinds of "dirty" fighting techniques, power plays, and defense mechanisms others use to manipulate and control those they see as adversaries.  You will discover the variations of power --- how people use and abuse it and what you can do to protect yourself from power plays in any environment -- personal, public, or professional.

Through practical hands-on experiences, you will discover how to connect and communicate more effectively, listen more accurately, avoid the pitfalls and mine fields used by controlling, competitive, or dependent people, and manage almost any conflict situation you may encounter.  Course subjects include:

self-disclosure, trust and assertiveness

verbal and non-verbal communication

perceptions, attitudes and stereotypes

active listening

male - female myths and gender expectations

power plays and dirty fighting strategies

DYNAMICS OF GLOBAL STEWARDSHIP
 

Native American Medicine Wheel : : The Circle of Life
The Medicine Wheel is an ancient symbol of the Circle of Life, one of the most profound similarities evident among the world's diverse cultures and belief systems. In existence for thousands of years, the Wheel has been teaching humans what  we only now recognize as a global imperative:

Each direction of the Wheel represents certain qualities needed to help you with your life journey. Using the Wheel as a symbolic mirror, you gain a vision of what you can become if you choose to follow the Wheel's path toward unity, harmony, and balance among all its positions. You will make your own prayer bundles as part of this uplifting celebration of Life.

Your time within the Medicine Wheel will teach you how unity is achieved by understanding and balancing the life events you experience every day. No matter what you have endured in your life, healing and wholeness can be restored with the Wheel's teachings of love, compassion, patience, justice, beauty and wisdom.