Conflict Mastery
The Black Belt Edition
Certification Course
Imagine if you had less friction and more positive engagement at your workplace and in your personal life. Imagine experiencing a sense of freedom and control as you navigate the ups and downs of your life.
For more than three decades I have studied and pioneered the most cutting edge methodologies for conflict mastery.
In 2020 everything changed forever. We have all had to evolve and adapt into a “new normal”. The modern “workplace” environment has changed drastically almost overnight. This conflict inspired me to grow and to evolve and moved me into action.
I have distilled my life’s work into this interactive and virtual course so that you can have access to it at your own pace and where ever you happen to be.
Let’s roll!! – Karen Valencic
How we Misunderstand Conflict
Conflict is not the destructive force most of us were taught it is. In fact, I’ll share a surprising secret with you:
Conflict is required for growth.
It is natural, essential, and unavoidable!
When it’s properly understood and channeled, conflict is a powerfully transformative force, not only for solving problems but also as a catalyst for innovation and learning. Unfortunately, because we’re taught to avoid or even avoid conflict (traditional “conflict management”), few people possess the skills they need to harness its beneficial power.
In this course you will have access to me through LIVE weekly zooms.
I will work directly with your conflicts and assist you to create personal breakthroughs and solutions that impact your life right away. You can also watch the recordings at your convenience if you miss the LIVE zooms, and can access email support and have direct communication to me anytime.
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Adapt more easily to change
- Transform fear into productive, problem-solving energy
- Dissipate anxiety and overwhelm
- Provide difficult feedback with respect
- Remove resistance, propelling you into innovation
- Cultivate civility, even when differences seem insurmountable
- Initiate and guide discussions around sensitive topics to foster learning and connection
- Strengthen your awareness of your own, internal guidance
- Create and maintain connections at a distance
Step onto the Mat
and Embody True Power
The Conflict Mastery Belt Certification program begins with the foundational principles taught virtually and intractively in the Blue Belt Program. Then, progresses to an Intermediate Level In-Person training where you will learn deeper skills to embody the principles of Spiral Impact and conflict mastery.
Finally, there is the opportunity for you to become a master of Spiral Impact and earn your Black Belt. This Master Level Certification allows you to teach the methodology of Spiral Impact.

Foundation: Blue Belt
Virtually Delivered
Includes:
Video Instruction – short sessions building on each other, average 11 minutes, approximately 4 hours
Access to Karen through weekly live zooms
Productive Conflict Personality Assessment – Wiley Everything DiSC
You will have a working knowledge of the Five Keys of Conflict Mastery

Intermediate: Purple Belt
In-Person Training
Pre-requiste: Blue Belt
This in-person training is a deeper integration of the Spiral Impact principles that can only happen when you are in the same room! Modeling, practicing, and de-briefing techniques so that you can embody the Five Keys of Conflict Mastery.
Karen offers ‘open’ programs twice a year. This can also be brought in-house.

Black Belt
Why Now?
3 decades of Designing, Refining, and validating
conflict Mastery
No matter how long you’ve been doing something, there’s always some new horizon, something more to learn.
Where’s your edge?
Who Is Karen Valencic?
Best Selling Author, Karen Valencic is founder of Spiral Impact, a company specializing in conflict mastery and performance improvement.
As a degreed, tenured engineer, Karen’s content is informed by effectiveness and practicality. Thirty years of martial arts practice further brings an artistic flair and power to both her live and online coaching and consulting.
For three decades Karen has guided leaders and teams to grow, flourish, and innovate — both personally and professionally — through speaking events, coaching, and consulting.
Get the Book
with the Course!
The Black Belt Edition of Karen’s Spiral Impact: The Power to Get It Done with Grace is now available — and a best-seller on Amazon!
From the book cover:
In times of accelerated change and disruption, peoples’ lagging ability to adapt opens a Pandora’s box that can result in destructive conflict, burnout, and division. In this Black Belt Edition of Spiral Impact: The Power to Get It Done with Grace, Karen Valencic shares how to bring forth your True Power and master the art of conflict to help you foster collaboration, innovation, and civility. These skills will greatly impact your sense of individual freedom as well as engagement in your life. Karen’s Spiral Impact Method is grounded in physics and the martial art of Aikido, which she blends with three decades of experience working deeply with leaders and teams.

What Amazon readers say about the Spiral Impact Black Belt Edition:
“Excellent guide for improving communication and dealing with conflict in your life!”
“A must-read, even for those that don’t like self-help books.”
“I highly recommend Spiral Impact to executive leadership, middle managers and sales personnel.”
“Karen’s relatable real-life examples of workplace interactions make the book fun to read. The techniques are clearly outlined and also applicable to mastering conflict outside the workplace. Spiral Impact should be required reading for anyone who is part of a team at work or has teenagers at home.”
“Karen has provided a novel, memorable way to approaching conflict, facing adversity, and overcoming obstacles to our success in a way that gets it done, as she says, with Grace. The imagery of her model is as appealing as it is practical. As with her Aikido Practice, the genesis for the model, Spiral Impact offers a focused, disciplined “Quadrant Shift“ approach to creating momentum, which leads to positive results.”
From Karen’s Clients and Readers
“Karen provided a number of tools and techniques for how to manage competing priorities within the workplace, creating alignment while remaining calm and balanced. Thank you, Karen and Spiral Impact for these practical and powerful tools.”
“I loved the ways Karen challenged my assumptions. I learned that within assumptions lies a prison that keeps me focused on what I assume to be right without allowing a more fluid approach to consider other possibilities. I’m grateful for our year-long engagement. Her coaching was transforming.”
“Spiral Impact has caused me to pause and realize how some simple changes I can make in my communication can have such a positive impact on outcomes. I like the short story examples the author shares. This is an easy read and one of those books you can pick any page and get valuable insights.”

Spiral Impact’s Roots in Aikido
The way we interact with the people, things, and ideas in our lives either gives us power and influence or takes them away. Embodying what I call True Power requires more than just knowing techniques. You must apply those techniques to the situations that arise in your life, study the outcomes, adjust your actions, and incorporate them into a framework of habits that support you.
Spiral Impact® is grounded in the martial art of aikido, which uses True Power — focused energy, knowledge, intention, and support — instead of force, to render an attack harmless. Aikido is brought to life on the mat, where practitioners sharpen their skills, work out frustrations, and own their power. Showing up on the mat gives practitioners a chance to exercise, elevate, and embody their skills.
This Belt Certification Program invites you to step onto the Spiral Impact “mat” to sharpen skills and develop your own True Power — then apply them to your work, life, and relationships.