Hi, I am Rob Driedger (he / him). I have been on this planet for over 46 years now, and it has been quite the ride. There have been many up and down moments and the have taught me many life lessons, the hard way of course. I am born and raised in Winnipeg Manitoba, and still live here today, as a divorced father with shared co-parenting time with my teenaged daughter. Unfortunately my story is not a glamorous Marvel movie hero origin story, it is more of a fragmented tale of undiagnosed ADHD, subtly strong anxiety, childhood PTSD, social awkwardness, an unsuccessful marriage, fatherhood, single-dad life… and with years of contemplation, therapy, studying, personal work, feedback from family / friends and lots of luck, I have survived my dark nights of the soul to be in a much better place today. I feel my unique challenges have forced me to be very open-minded and observant and perhaps I have achieved a NeuroDivergent Superpower of being able to understand human behavior and recognize its patterns. Hopefully I can use this Superpower well enough to help others irl and via MWW! While I am striving ever onwards to keep improving as a work in progress, I can say that today, I have never been more at Peace with myself and my surroundings. I credit this to having a solid intellectual understanding of how my body and brain work, which allows me to be more content at navigating life.

Now that I have made an impactful improvement of my own mental health and well-being, I am very tired of working on myself lol… I am much more stoked to begin sharing my gains with others (I am high in Agreeableness)!

I strongly believe that the tools I have used to achieve my own growth can be understood and used by anyone. These extremely valuable tools may fall under the category of Psychology / Therapy, yet they can be discussed and understood amongst like-minded people in a healthy and safe way. I do not have any formal university education nor any certifications, therefore the scope of the MWW is not designed to deal with complex dangerous mental health issues. However there is a very large and safe area of important issues to explore amongst mutually agreeable and capable people, without the fees and costs of discussing them in traditional old school institutions.

I believe the reason it took so long for me to level up was the lack of having open-hearted and genuine conversations about the things that truly matter, aka: Real Talk. Therefore MWW is designed to be a place to have Real Talks with people in good faith, without having economic or social barriers being in the way.

This is my purpose with MWW: to share the tools and knowledge I have used to improve my life and mental health with others in a safe and kind way, so as to help them speed up the improvement of their own well-being.

Life Coaching Practitioner Certification (Beginner-Advanced)  as taught by Kain Ramsay, The Academy of Modern Applied Psychology

Couples Therapy & Emotional Design / PsyC (Coach) as taught by Sufani Garza, Place of Bliss Academy

The purpose of the Mutual Wisdom Workshop is to be a safe and productive space to have collaborative discussions sharing in our mutual wisdom, in good faith and without judgment, so as to seek solutions to our challenges and improve our overall well-being.

MWW is aiming to be a valuable resource for people to engage in high quality conversations based in a variety of arenas such as consultation, relationship advice, divorce proceedings, personal work, therapy etc… without traditional institutions imposing their financial barriers to access such valuable yet readily understood information.

Workshops are an open invitation to all members of the community to participate in, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation. I acknowledge that I am of European descent, living on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg Manitoba, the traditional territory of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. My belief is that every individual is deserving of human rights, freedoms, respect and dignity.

MWW is an open invitation for you to come in to discuss a challenging issue you are wrestling with, where I will provide feedback and guidance so that it can hopefully speed up the process of finding your solution. Usually a discussion would be 15 to 30 minutes via Skype or Instagram.

I am not a guru with all the answers to solve every problem, I am just a guy who has done tons of personal work and has lived for 40+ years with a very observant, open mind. I am here to share the tools that have helped me understand + resolve my own problems, so that you can understand + resolve your own!

Think of it as a “two heads are better than one” type of discussion, do not expect a one-way mansplaining session, nor a prolonged gossip session.

Another way to look at it, we are two people who are coming together to try fix your car. We run diagnostics to check out what the problem is and discuss a possible solution. Seeing as we both brought our own tools to the garage, with my wrench and your screwdriver we work together to tighten up the muffler and see if the car starts running a little bit quieter (feel free to use a better car repair analogy if required).

Step 1: Message MWW requesting that you would like to discuss an issue, briefly describe it so I can get a head start on preparing some info for our discussion. In order to create a familiarity between us without telling each other our life stories, I encourage you to look up your Briggs-Meyers or The Big 5 Personality Traits. The Big 5 especially is one of the best tools I have used to help me understand how I and other humans navigate the world. I strongly encourage to you learn more about the O.C.E.A.N., take a free test here: https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test Send me the results to help speed things up at the workshop.

For Briggs-Meyers I am: INTP.

For the Big 5 I am: Openness = Very High / Conscientiousness = Low / Extraversion = Mid / Agreeableness = High / Neuroticism = Mid)

Step 2: Once the workshop discussion is scheduled via Skype or Instagram, we begin our convo. I will start with some Big 5 Personality type questions about yourself, to get a general idea of how you navigate the world. The kind of questions of you’d find on a Briggs-Meyers test or a Big 5 Personality Test such as: Do you prefer being the center of attention at a party, or chilling in a smaller group?

Step 3: Once we have chatted a bit to get a basic familiarity of each other, I will ask you to elaborate on what are your challenges and / or negative vibes that are concerning you today.

Step 4: My first feedback will probably be to discuss the practical definitions / terminology of the negative impacts you are having. Knowing is half of the battle! Understanding the how and why negative emotions occur in our bodies is so important. For example, the word Anxiety can have a different meaning to a thousand different people, however there is practical scientific view as to how and why it occurs in us. Putting language on the phenomenon of Anxiety is key to improving how we deal with experiencing the Anxiety itself.

Step 5: Once we have a general idea of the challenge/s you are facing and we have put some helpful language to it, we can then discuss some actions you can take to help improve the situation. Perhaps it will be some sort mental health tip, an irl life hack, a suggestion about how to have an important conversation with someone or maybe I will find some homework for you to do more investigation of the challenges you are facing, such as book recommendations or links to websites or videos that go into further detail of the topics at hand.

Step 6: To close up the discussion, there will be a quick recap and a chance to share any final thoughts.

Step 7: Follow up workshops are up to you! MWW is not intended to drag out things over multiple sessions in order stack up billable hours. We are looking to get to the gist of your issues and taking practical steps. After you taken some time and out in some work into improving your challenges, and you would like to progress further or perhaps you’ve had a setback and need to recalibrate, for sure come back to discuss things again in a follow up workshop!

Step 8: MWW are free! If you are inclined to send out a karmic donation or a tip, you can use one of the links here, thank you!

Electronic Fund Transfer: MutualWisdomWorkshop@pm.me

Paypal

MWW is designed in the spirit of Mutual Aid and is a free resource, open to all. The information that I have learned about human behavior that has greatly improved my well-being is public knowledge and should not be kept hidden behind institutional structures that demand an hourly fee to access it.

Having a 75-250$ per hour cost to these types of conversations is not only a barrier to initiate a session, it can also muddy the intentions of the one receiving the fee, as they may not be in a rush to help. Also, for the one paying, they may not be in the best frame of mind to be open and engaged in the convo when the clock is ticking, distracted by thinking how big the bill is going to be. Financial burdens get in the way of genuine interactions.

I would however appreciate a financial donation as a thank you for the time and effort I have put into our MWW conversations… only if you found the workshop was beneficial to you! Much like tipping a waiter for good service, or buying merch from a band you like, or going to a karma yoga class, or being a Patreon member for a podcast you listen to regularly; financial rewards should be earned by providing you quality work / service, at a price you are willing to pay.

If you feel like the workshop was not helpful or if you not able to or simply not interesting in donating, that is 100% ok!

So I leave the decision of leaving a financial donation in your hands.

Karma Donation / Tips:

EFT Email: MutualWisdomWorkshop@pm.me

https://paypal.me/MutualWisdomWorkshop?country.x=CA&locale.x=en_US

I pledge to uphold the same levels of professional conduct, privacy and respect that one would expect to receive from an institutional consultation, mediation or therapy session. Anything discussed in our conversations will be brought up outside of the workshop, unless it is necessary to break confidentiality for someone showing very imminent signs of endangering themselves or others. Any contact information collected will never be shared.

MWW is designed so that I am giving you the tools to improve your own personal work on your own time, it is not necessary for you to share anything with me you are not comfortable with, in order for workshopping to be effective. In fact I will probably be the one doing more of the raw sharing, as I will be using examples from my own experience to elaborate various ideas, therefore privacy will be a two-way street of good faith and respect amongst all present.

Karma Donation / Tips:

EFT Email: MutualWisdomWorkshop@pm.me

Paypal

"I always look forward to 'real talk' with Robert. He has a zen presence that makes me feel comfortable and safe in sharing with him, and he understands that we are all on our own journey. Conversations that could be heavy feel enlightening and leave me with a broader perspective and renewed sense of hope. He is genuinely kind and good-hearted and his commitment to self- awareness and self-improvement are inspiring. I'm excited that Robert has decided to share his gift with the world through this new venture." - Anonymous (40ish Female)

“Rob has been such a tremendous help through his advice and coaching on better handling relationship situations. It’s great to talk to someone who carries such a professional attitude. I couldn’t have done it without you, thank you! - Anonymous (40ish Male)