Improving Communication Systems. Member Spotlight: Geri Murphy
Geri Murphy is an educational/organizational psychologist, business consultant/coach, real estate broker, and mediator. Geri has a PhD, master’s degrees, and various other credentials that have led her to such a diverse career. Her extensive academic background not only gave her a profound understanding of psychology, therapy, counseling, and collaborative problem solving but it also formed the basis for her skillset as a mediator. Throughout her various roles, Geri has always managed to build bridges between her areas of interest, and bring her talent for conflict resolution to every organization with which she has been involved.
Education and Mediation
Born and raised in California, Geri graduated from South Pasadena High School and went on to pursue her bachelor’s at the University of Southern California. After completing a year abroad in Austria through Wagner College, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and her Master of Science Degree in Educational Psychology, in addition to obtaining her secondary teaching credential and Pupil Personnel Services Credential along the way. After working as a school psychologist for a number of years, Geri returned to Claremont Graduate University to obtain a PhD in Organizational Psychology, and then began her administrative experience in education.
While completing her secondary teacher credential requirements at USC, Geri was drawn to USC’s educational psychology program, as it was aligned with her interest to learn more deeply about human nature and motivation, which was the underlying study of her writings. Once in the educational psychology program, Geri was able to take courses in counseling that were offered in the clinical psychology, and social work programs at USC. As a school psychologist, she was able to bring all of these skills into practice as she worked with youth and families, and eventually with community organizations and agencies.
While she completed her graduate work at USC, Geri was employed as an assistant manager of training and development where she had the opportunity to use her growing skillset in a business environment.
While completing requirements for her PhD, Geri was selected for the position of Director of Special Education, Indian Education, Bilingual Education, and Principal of St. John’s High School in Banning, California. In this position, Geri began to work more intensely with mediation of not just students and families, but now with employees and organizations. Throughout her time in the educational world, she had seen so much conflict between students. Before the time that restorative justice approaches were more widely recognized, Geri saw that these conflicts provided an opportunity. She began to train her staff based on her psychology expertise in “therapeutic interventions” and listening.
Geri’s methods of resolving conflicts revolved around active listening. She was teaching her staff how to let students have their own voice in a conflict, and how to allow the time and space for each one to talk about their emotions and reactions. With this approach, Geri aimed to give everyone the opportunity to become more in touch with themselves and discuss what exactly they were feeling and what caused it, without blaming.
“I was always working towards a win-win scenario, in which both sides can feel like they have been heard. From there, they could develop a plan to move forward and work cooperatively together.”
This initial interaction with the field of mediation and conflict resolution also served as Geri’s introduction to MBBI. Geri became a member and participates with MBBI as much as she can because it resonates deeply with both her interest in the field, and her passion in international relations. Geri has always been very passionate about traveling, meeting new people, learning their stories, and hearing their needs and concerns. She is also a Rotarian, and has always felt that “service beyond self” is a key part of her work.
Combining Interests
In addition, Geri has become a certified hypnotherapist, and a certified business coach/consultant. During her time as a psychologist with Riverside County Office of Education in the Indio Office, Geri began noting that conflicts broke out not only among students, but also among staff members inside of the different organizations with whom she partnered. That awareness inspired Geri to work on solving conflict within organizations, which is what brought her to her PhD in Organizational Psychology at Claremont. With her business credentials and extensive experience, Geri now helps organizations to resolve their issues and build strong teams. She helps individuals and teams develop the needed skills so that they can effectively resolve conflicts as they arise inside of their organizations.
Despite being in so many different occupational fields, Geri has found the bridges between all of them. While each sector may have a different language, from education to business to organizational psychology, Geri sees that the goal is really just to help people thrive and to realize the power within to be happy and fulfilled.
“I’m an extremely curious person. If there’s a question that I don’t understand, I want to go learn more about it.”
Geri feels that her ability to create paths between various fields has stemmed from her original education in English literature, psychology, and counseling. Client-centered therapy is all about truly listening, and letting people guide their own journey. Geri notes that this role is mainly about facilitation and reflection to help them understand themselves more clearly. In this way, conflict resolution and mediation has been a through-line for Geri in all the work she has done.
“Playing the role of a mediator is just part of life. It’s part of what we do not just as a professional, but it’s what we do in our personal lives too. Oftentimes, I feel like we omit the things that we can do to make our lives more fluent and abundant by just listening, and helping other people listen to themselves.”
Challenges in Mediation
As a school director and now as a consultant, Geri has found opportunities to impart mediation skills on students as well as the staff that she trains. At schools she quickly realized the importance of involving students who showed leadership qualities, whether positively or negatively, in the process of conflict resolution. Giving them these insights and skillsets in such developmental years has the potential to create such a huge impact. However, Geri notes that one of the main challenges is simply finding time. She explains that setting aside the time to get young people together and to train them is very difficult. Further, while there are professional development days for staff, trying to train teachers with all of this information in just one session is equally challenging.
Developing the teams and honing the skills acquired in conflict resolution work does not come overnight. Beyond just hearing the information, mediation requires practice on an ongoing basis, and should be incorporated with daily life situations and even with play. Deeper commitment is necessary in order to listen to others with all of your senses, guide them through their emotional process, and develop the steps forward.
Geri has seen how difficult it can be to get adequate conflict resolution training to both teachers and students, and she has noted the same dynamics in the work world. As a business consultant with her background in organizational psychology, she is faced with pulling people out of a busy workday and have the time needed to develop these conflict resolution and communication skills is, again, a limiting factor. Nonetheless, she sees the work as highly important.
“So often within organizations, when things start to boil up, people are not sharing because they don’t always have the communication systems for when they are hurt or offended. Giving people an avenue to express these feelings changes the work environment entirely, and certainly helps with productivity and mental health all the way around.”
Making a Difference
“One thing that I wish I had known when I was starting out is the importance of knowing how to resolve conflicts in a proactive, peaceful, non-aggressive way, that builds teams, organizations, and communities.”
Geri feels that she has seen far too many creative, bright and determined people let go from their jobs or positions due to conflicts that could have been resolved. She believes that simply listening to people and understanding them better could have completely changed the result. To Geri, this kind of work is about building a team that supports one another and that sees conflict as constructive instead of destructive. Seeing this process take place is what gives Geri’s work so much impactful.
“The most meaningful part of the work for me is making a difference. I love seeing people resolve conflicts by themselves and becoming empowered. Then they don’t only use these skills when they’re directed to, but they can utilize them proactively to create a better life.”
Geri also finds that this is one of the aspects that has drawn her most to MBBI. She loves the collaboration of MBBI with Rotary, and the idea of spreading the power of mediation on both the local and international scales. Geri also appreciates the value of creating courageous conversations, especially now that the United States is so divided and polarized.
Geri considers herself an agent of change and someone who really listens to others. She believes that she can be a great asset to any team because of her ability to unearth people’s true goals and needs, and find the commonalities between them. Going forward, she would love to get more deeply involved in MBBI’s work. Geri hopes to use her expertise in working with leaders and key decision makers in organizations to resolve conflicts both externally and internally. Her passion for traveling and international relations draws her to pursuing this work abroad, and she would be more than happy to be contacted by any other members who might be looking for someone with her broad skill sets and experience.
Article by Elise Webster, MBBI Writer