CPHR ATLANTIC CONFERENCE 2026 - CONCURRENT SESSION
The Neurobiology of Conflict
How Psychology Can Improve Our Workplaces
Workplace conflict is often a threat response, not a character flaw. In this session, Erin Arsenault explains why reasonable people become defensive, resistant, or combative at work — and how understanding the brain's threat response (including the amygdala) helps managers de-escalate conflict, deliver feedback, and lead change more effectively.
Erin Arsenault, B.Sc., M.A., LL.B., AWI-CH, CPHR
PRESENTER
About the Speaker
Erin Arsenault
B.Sc., M.A., LL.B., AWI-CH, CPHR — Resonance HR Law
Why do employees become defensive or resistant at work?
The answer lies, at least in part, in how our brains respond to perceived threat. This session explores the psychology and neurobiology that influence workplace behaviour, with particular attention to the role of the amygdala and the brain's threat response.
Participants will consider how perceived threats to status, certainty, autonomy, relationships, and fairness can affect our ability to listen, reason, collaborate, and adapt — connecting these responses to familiar workplace challenges including interpersonal conflict, difficult conversations, resistance to change, feedback, performance management, and organizational uncertainty.
Most importantly, the session moves beyond understanding why people react as they do to consider what we can do about it.
What will I learn from this session?
❋ How to recognize when a threat response may be driving behaviour
❋ Strategies for reducing unnecessary threat in workplace interactions
❋ A psychological lens on resistance to change and feedback
❋ Tools for managing your own reactions under pressure
❋ Ways to create the conditions for more productive conversations
❋ Practical approaches for healthier, more resilient workplaces
Join Erin Arsenault at CPHR Atlantic 2026
See this session on the full conference agenda and register to attend.