This monthly 60–90-minute virtual Strengthening Relationships presentation series was created to have speakers share their professional expertise with the UT Austin community on ways to strengthen relationships and build community. This year, the presentations will run from November 2025 - June 2026.
We are thinking broadly in terms of topics that could help faculty, staff and retirees cultivate meaningful, healthy, and authentic connection with others by strengthening their relationship skills with their partners, their co-workers, the teams they lead, their families, and the children they parent.
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November: "The Musts of Trust: How to Build, Maintain, and Repair Your Relationships at Work" presented by Dr. Sarah Porter, a licensed psychologist and founder of a workplace training and consulting practice, on November 12th from noon to 1:30 p.m. Join us to explore ways to establish and sustain trust within your team. You will (a) discover how six key trustworthiness indicators affect your work relationships, and (b) identify steps you can take right away to strengthen trust with your coworkers.
This training offers a practical roadmap for nurturing trust at work, no matter your role or function. Explore which daily actions facilitate trust within new or existing teams, preserve it in varied work environments, and recover it when trust gets shaken.
Participants will be taught how to:
● Describe the “teeter totter of trust”
● Summarize the benefits of prioritizing trust within your team and organization
● Identify and evaluate six trustworthiness indicators that shape your work relationships
● Employ targeted strategies to grow trust, recover from lapses, and strengthen team
collaboration
December: "Heal, Grow, and Connect: The Power of Apology and Forgiveness" presented by Eva Escobedo, LPC-S on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 from noon to 1 p.m.
Do you feel stuck in a cycle of resentment and misunderstanding? Are unresolved conflicts damaging your most important relationships? Join this transformative 60-minute presentation on the restorative power of apology and forgiveness.
This insightful session will teach the practical steps for crafting a genuine apology and the liberating truth about what it means to forgive. The presentation will explore how to:
- Deliver an apology that genuinely heals and rebuilds trust.
- Discern when an apology is owed and when it is not.
- Navigate the challenging journey of accepting (or declining) an apology with grace.
- Release the burden of resentment for mental and emotional health.
This workshop is for anyone seeking to foster deeper connections and emotional safety in all their relationships. Discover how the simple, courageous acts of apologizing and forgiving can repair harm, soothe wounds, and create new possibilities for connection.
January: "Leading Neurodiverse Teams" presented by Mark Sones and Katharine Sucher on Thursday, January 22, 2025 from noon to 1 p.m. More details to come.
February: "Leading through times of change" presented by Traci Callandrillo on February 10,2025 from noon to 1:30 p.m. More details to come.
March: "Running Away from home: the phenomenon of parent/adult child estrangement and repair possibilities" presented by Dr. Emily Mohr on Friday, March 6, 2025 from noon to 1 p.m. This presentation will discuss the increasingly visible phenomenon of estrangement between adult children and parents. We will talk about the what, who, and why of family estrangement, as well as the repair experience and evidence-based strategies to support a healthier path back together. We will use attachment theory to frame the discussion through a science-driven lens and leave plenty of time for Q&A.