Relational Intelligence
Because relationships — not roles — determine how well an organisation thrives.
In every organisation, the quality of relationships determines the quality of outcomes.
Relational Intelligence is the capacity to sense and respond to what is happening between people — how power, emotion, nervous systems, and meaning shape communication, connection and conflict.
This work supports leaders and teams to understand relational dynamics at depth: how safety is created or eroded, how authority is held, and how trust is repaired when it inevitably ruptures.
Rather than offering techniques in isolation, Relational Intelligence develops core relational capacities — regulation, attunement, and power awareness — that organisations draw on differently depending on their context, culture, and challenges.
Why Relational Intelligence is the Missing Piece in Transformative Leadership
Core Domains of Relational Intelligence
Self-Awareness & Co-Regulation
Focus:
How our nervous systems shape communication, emotion, and boundaries — and how regulation builds trust, even under pressure.
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Topics include:
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Self-awareness
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Drawing relational boundaries
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Relational repair: how trust is truly rebuilt
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The neuroscience of regulation & communication
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Regulation as relational responsibility
Power, Presence & Permission
Focus:
How power operates — consciously and unconsciously — and how leaders can hold authority without dominance or collapse.
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Topics include:
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Unconscious power dynamics and how to navigate them
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The role of consent and micro-consent in leadership
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Presence as a source of authority
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Why unspoken power dynamics erode trust
Attunement, Conflict & Repair
Focus:​
How leaders and teams navigate rupture, difference, and complexity without defensiveness or avoidance.
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Topics include:
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Boundary-setting as leadership, not conflict
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The ecology of conflict
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Attunement & the body as barometer
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The pitfalls and empathy and how to avoid them
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Repairing micro-ruptures (and why rupture is inevitable)
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Balancing safety and authority
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Internalised trauma & emotional reactivity in leadership
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From reactivity to responsiveness: the courage of attuned curiosity
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Conversations that regulate, not escalate
Format
Relational Intelligence training is delivered as a considered process rather than a one-off workshop.
Engagements typically begin with a 30–60 minute consultation with the leadership team to understand organisational context, relational patterns, and the specific challenges leaders are navigating. This allows the training to be precisely shaped to the realities of the organisation rather than delivered as a generic program.
Depending on the complexity of the issues and how long these patterns have been present, training is usually delivered through one to three half-day sessions with the leadership team. These sessions build progressively, allowing time for reflection, integration, and real-world application between sessions.
Individual mentoring or leadership consultation can be added as an optional extension for leaders who want more tailored support in applying the work to their specific role, relationships, or decision-making context.
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All programs are face-to-face by design to allow for experiential learning, reflection, and integration.
In cases where staff are regionally based or unable to attend in person, sessions can be delivered live online.
Each workshop is interactive and capped at 12 participants to ensure depth of engagement and individual attention.​
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About the Facilitator
Anisa Varasteh
Anisa Varasteh is an organisational consultant, facilitator, and mental health clinician whose work centres on the relational dynamics that shape leadership, culture, and decision-making.
Before founding her own practice, Anisa held senior clinical and leadership roles across major mental health organisations, overseeing multidisciplinary teams and service delivery across metropolitan, regional, and remote South Australia. This experience gave her a deep understanding of how pressure, power, and emotional labour operate inside real systems — not just in theory, but in practice.
Today, Anisa works with organisations that are functional but relationally strained — where technical competence exists, yet conversations feel heavy, leadership feels exhausting, or psychological safety is discussed but not fully felt.
Her work sits at the intersection of relational intelligence, nervous-system awareness, and conscious power — helping leaders and teams understand what is happening between people, not just within individuals.
Blending clinical insight, neuroscience, and lived leadership experience, Anisa has a rare ability to make complex relational dynamics visible, grounded, and workable — without oversimplifying them.
Culturally fluent and globally minded, she brings a nuanced perspective on safety, authority, and belonging across diverse contexts.
The result is training that doesn’t just inform — it recalibrates how people relate, communicate, and lead under pressure.
