Facilitation Training: For Every Room You Are Asked to Lead
Updated: Oct 7
November 5 - 6, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota
This 2-day training is built for professionals at every level (brand new or seasoned) who want to deepen their practice, build confidence, and strengthen their ability to lead engaging, inclusive, and productive meetings.
Are you...
Leading meetings but have never actually been trained to facilitate them?
Wanting more energy, voice, and buy-in from the people in the room?
Navigating power dynamics without a clear game plan?
Feeling like you're carrying every meeting on your own?
Ready to bring more life, clarity, and purpose to how you lead groups?
This training was designed with you in mind.
Whether you're leading staff meetings, board meetings, community forums, coalition gatherings, or committee work — the core skills are the same, and this training will help you build them.
ABOUT THE TRAINING
2-Day In-Person Facilitator Training
When: November 5-6, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Where: Saint Paul College at 235 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55102
Investment: $600 (includes lunch and parking) | Price increases to $650 after October 22, 2026.
We encourage you to reserve your seat now. If the minimum number of participants is not met by October 22, registration fees will be fully refunded/not charged. Please wait to make travel arrangements until you receive confirmation that the workshop will proceed.
THROUGHOUT THE TRAINING, YOU WILL
Learn foundational and advanced facilitation techniques you can use immediately
Practice leading real portions of a meeting, with real-time supportive coaching
Build tools for managing group dynamics, conflict, and emotional moments with confidence
Practice appreciative inquiry techniques that shift a group's energy from problem-focused to possibility-focused
Strengthen your own grounding, self-care, and nervous system regulation so you can stay steady when the room gets hard
Connect with a community of fellow facilitators who get it
Enjoy good food, movement breaks, reflective activities, and even a little fun
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Team leads and supervisors who run staff meetings
Program coordinators and committee or coalition chairs
Board members and nonprofit leaders
Community organizers and cross-sector collaborators
Public health, human services, and government professionals
Anyone who facilitates group conversations and wants to do it with more confidence and skill
MORE THAN A TRAINING
This is more than a training. It's a space to grow, practice, recharge, and return home equipped to lead meetings that are effective, inclusive, and genuinely worth showing up for.
Testimonials
“This facilitation training allowed me to deepen how I already run my meetings, but also gave me more tips and tricks of how to manage conflict, what to do if no one is responding, and to be okay with silence…”
“I really didn't know what to expect with this training, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I learned and how I've already been able to implement some of the teachings.”
“There was a ton of information and techniques shared but it rarely felt overwhelming because each topic was covered in manageable, bite-sized pieces.”
TRAINERS
Melissa Heinen is the founder of Salus Consulting LLC and a facilitator who specializes in leading groups through the hardest conversations in the room. Her expertise was forged in fatality review facilitation. She has trained practitioners across the country, to lead high-stakes, emotionally complex meetings with clarity and care. Beyond that specialty, she has facilitated national communities of practice, advisory boards, strategic workgroups, and internal staff meetings - building the same clarity, engagement, and follow-through into rooms of every size and stakes level. This training draws on that full range of experience: practical techniques tested from the boardroom to the case review table, adapted for any facilitator who wants to lead with more confidence and skill. Learn more about Melissa here.
Mallory O'Brien, PhD, MS, has spent more than 30 years bringing together people who see problems differently and helping them find common ground. As an Associate Scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she works at the intersection of public health, public safety, and community where progress depends on getting law enforcement, medical examiners, clinicians, treatment providers, community organizations, and families to talk openly, trust one another, and act together.
Much of that work happens in the room. Dr. O'Brien has facilitated fatality reviews where participants examine deeply painful cases, share sensitive information across agency lines, and work through disagreement to reach concrete recommendations.
Trained as an epidemiologist, she brings a data-informed perspective to facilitation, helping groups move from individual stories to patterns and from patterns to system change. Her work has been recognized with the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award, the U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods Outstanding Contribution by a Researcher award, and the Johns Hopkins Excellence in National Public Health Practice award. Learn more about Mallory here.
TRAVEL AND LODGING INFORMATION
Travel and lodging information is provided to assist with budget estimates for internal travel approvals.
U.S. General Services Administration Federal Rates
Daily Lodging (Excluding Taxes) - $153
Daily Meals - $92 (lunch is covered in training registration fee and is $26 per day)
Recommended Hotel
Located in the heart of St. Paul, the Drury Plaza Hotel is conveniently located minutes from Grand Casino Arena, CHS Field, the Minnesota State Capitol, Regions Hospital, and Gillette Children’s Hospital. This all-suite hotel offers spacious two-room suites designed for maximum comfort. Hotel guests enjoy free hot breakfast, hot dinnertime snacks and cold drinks at 5:30 Kickback®, and Wi-Fi. Unwind at The Kitchen + Bar, open late every night in the lobby.
QUESTIONS
Contact Melissa Heinen at Melissa@Salusconsultingllc.com
or visit www.salusconsultingllc.com
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