Too often after face-to-face encounters organized for empowerment, both the more and less powerful feel ineffective, disrespected, resentful, and disempowered despite the intentions of dedicated practitioners to be effective and respectful.
In this thesis, I argue that part of the problem is that those of us in the more powerful positions often focus exclusively on empowering the less powerful. We are then not open to being empowered ourselves (as individuals and as members of groups). Further, we are often unaware of what we bring to the encounter and how that affects the way we think, feel, and interact.