In this four-week workshop, Lea Csikós and Elyse Mendel will work with you to identify areas in your life where you are feeling stuck — your job, health, career, family, relationships, etc. and help you create a team with people in your life that will support exploring new possibilities to standing issues. Through improvisation, readings and conversation, Lea and Elyse will draw on their expertise in creating social therapeutic group environments to help you explore ways to build a joyful life.

This is an offering of Developing Across Borders (DAB) - a global program of the East Side Institute. DAB offers multiple weekly international online groups that, using the social therapeutic method, connect people across cultures, generations, and life circumstances to build community and create their emotional development.

DAB is a solidarity-based practice, making participation accessible to all by allowing people to pay what they can to support one another.

Attendance of all 4 sessions is required.

Zoom Meeting Dates:

Sundays, March 1st @ 10:30AM Eastern US Time - UTC-5), and March 8th, 15th and 22nd (at 10:30AM Eastern US Time - UTC-4).

PLEASE NOTE the time change in the Eastern US between the first and second weekends.

Leader Biographies

Lea Csikós is a social therapeutic practitioner, developmentalist, intercultural trainer, and community organizer from Novi Sad, Serbia. With over 20 years of experience living and working across Europe and now based in Antwerp, she leads Developing Across Borders groups at the East Side Institute, exploring health, life teams, grief, relationships, cross-cultural resilience, and more. A co-founder of the Volunteers Centre of Vojvodina, she has created programs that have reached hundreds of youth and communities. Today, she draws on her combined expertise and experiences to design spaces that are engaging, transformative, and human-centered. Lea brings curiosity, warmth, and a love of travel, the sea, animals, improv, and cycling into her work—because, as she jokes, growth is serious business, but it should also be joyous.

Elyse Mendel is a social therapeutic practitioner, educator, community organizer and activist with years of experience working in multicultural communities. Elyse is a staff member with the East Side Institute and leads weekly, international, emotional development groups with Developing Across Borders. She has served as a Director of career services in higher education institutions, pioneering the use of improvisational play and group-building. Elyse is passionate about using conversation, listening and play to help people explore new possibilities in their lives.

Contact the host of Don’t Know How To Build Your Life? Nobody Does! A 4-week Guide to Building Life Teams with Lea Cikos & Elyse Mendel