
4 Days- Over 30 Teachers
May 29 to June 1, 2020

biggest digitaL
Global festival
about the festival
LEARN from world-known NVC trainers from 5 different continents.
CONNECT with the community from all around the world.
ADDRESS the crisis and potential of this moment in history together.
And on top HAVE FUN And let your BODY AND HEART enjoy offerings of yoga, dance parties, story telling, art, open stage.
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evening giraffe price: $135 / 124€ | SOLD OUT
TICKET SALE HAS ENDED
ANYONE can participate, it's online. This means that we can offer extra affordable prices and still have amazing teachers on board.
This is a wonderful opportunity! We donate 10% of the income to local NVC initiatives!
FESTIVAL TICKET SALE HAS ENDED
morning giraffe price: $110 | SOLD OUT

Over 45 NVC live workshops from work-known teachers
Over 25 live energizing offerings that will nourish you as we connect online.
Don’t worry about missing a workshop, much of the learning content will be recorded and available for you on demand.
We invite you to listen, to speak up, and to act for change, self care, support. To bring your presence, to feel, to meet, to open, and to explore the needs that we all share. To find your honest, compassionate expression, moment by moment, and journey deeply in becoming a stand for what you wish to see in the world.


Reena Ginwala's journey with NVC started in 2006 when Marshall came to India for an IIT. Since then, she has learnt, practiced and shared NVC with many trainers. She grows her NVC muscle through community based events where the living NVC quotient is high. The motto she is guided by is - ''Énough of Survival, I Choose to Thrive.'' AND; in an inherently interdependent world, one cannot thrive unless all do! To that purpose she offers workshops and holds space for Empathy, Mourning, Gratitude, Compassion and Forgiveness. She is keen to support personal and group transformation that manifests as shifts from a sense of Scarcity to Abundance, Vulnerability as Courage, Presence driven engagement with Conflicts, so new reality may emerge; and Trusting the process with openness to Outcome ... She brings strength to the design from the Sufi wisdom of Kabir, Mindfulness based on Buddhist perspectives, Human Dynamics from Process Work and of course the guiding principles of Nonviolent Communication. She enjoys bringing tools and skills to a wide range of participants from all walks of life. Her most precious celebration is raising three daughters as a single parent. She is deeply satisfied and grateful for how they are engaging as change makers in the world while she builds her mission for Peace, Harmony, Inclusion and Social Change. Currently she has completed her pre-assessment and is looking forward to her final assessment as a CNVC certified trainer.

P. Leonie Smith is a first-generation Canadian of Jamaican heritage and is founder of The Thoughtful Workplace, a consultancy that uses a relational and skill-building approach to coaching, training, and mediation. Informed by modalities such nonviolent communication and Sociocracy, she is dedicated to supporting organisations and individuals find ways of working that create more space for humanity and generate less harm She has more than 20 years experience in senior management positions championing an approach to leadership that supports care and efficiency towards a shared purpose. Links: Web: www.thethoughtfulworkplace.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThoughtfulWork/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThoughtfulWork

Shigeko Suzuki and Ken Anno have been involved in introducing NVC in Japan since 2004. They both have been involved in translating and Publishing Marshall Rosenberg’s “Nonviolent Communication, a Language of Life” in Japanese and were part of the organizing team of International Intensive Trainings in Japan, in 2014 and 2017. They have participated and assisted in BayNVC leadership program for over 10 years. They continue to collaborate with the members of the NVC community in Japan, to introduce trainers from abroad, as well as share NVC, as CNVC certified trainers themselves.

Barbara: I'm a reluctant NVC trainer. Not a trained or even natural teacher. It feels like I'm what I'm doing is simply passing on a gift. I experienced a profound awakening at my first IIT 20 years ago, and since then have followed a natural path of learning, living, sharing and supporting NVC in the world. Watching Marshall again and again, seemingly work magic in his Transforming Old Pain process, touched me very deeply. A door inside, call it awe, swung open to the beauty and wonder of life. By some grace, sharing that sacred process is now a gift I can pass on to others. I live in a beautiful part of our world, on an island in the Salish Sea. I get to work and play with my beloved partner Doug Dolstad, and together we host an amazing NVC Family Camp on our farm every summer.

Mukti Jarvis is an experiential attachment oriented NVC practitioner. She's an intimate relationship therapist and has been a CNVC trainer since 2004. After years of NVC with couples and her own relationships, her exploration became about going beyond the idea of love as a need. She shares the crucial impact of our unconscious strategies for meeting needs of safety and love; emotional regulation with feelings and needs, and relationship as a by-product of sharing radical emotional intimacy. Mukti enjoys, with new and experienced NVC'ers, exploring essential nuances which can lead NVC skills adding or subtracting from intimacy.

Sarah Peyton, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication, constellation facilitator and neuroscience educator, integrates brain science and the use of resonant language to heal trauma and nourish self-warmth with exquisite gentleness. She teaches and lectures internationally, and is the author of the book “Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing." She is currently at work on a second book, commissioned by W.W.Norton, on the relational neuroscience of the unconscious contracts that she will be offering in this session.

I began my career as a journalist and have worked for several years in the media and communications industry. But it was when I attended my first few NVC workshops that I realized that the ways in which I had learnt to communicate were not the most effective! Learning NVC, I began to unlearn so many ideas and habits, a process that continues until today. Today, as a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, I share NVC with individuals, groups and organisations. I enjoy working with teachers to support them in making their classrooms more compassionate and inclusive. I dream of a day when there is a generation that doesn't have to unlearn habitual ways of communication, and is able to stay in touch with themselves.

Kanya Likanasudh, MDiv, is based in Thailand where she is a pioneer in spreading Nonviolent Communication. She offers transformational programs in communication, conflict resolution, and coaching across sectors and in prisons. She challenges people with conflicting viewpoints to understand each other deeply which helps them discover creative solutions. Kanya’s joy in life is to create heart-connecting dialogue about power, privilege, and rank. Through humor and playfulness, she helps people use their privilege to create a more equitable world. Kanya combines meditation, body awareness, Nonviolent Communication, Internal Family Systems, the Integral Approach, and Process Work to deepen learning.

Camila Reyes is the initiator of Resuena: Comunicación que conecta vidas, an organization set out on a dream to expand Nonviolent Communication in Colombia so that it becomes part of the day-to-day culture. She is a certified trainer by The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) in the US. Camila is committed to building peace and strengthening trust and mutual support among human beings. She has led training programs, addressing the development of relational skills that are essential to comply with the humanitarian missions of the Disappeared Persons Search Unit (UBPD) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Colombia. https://resuenacolombia.com/

Doug: Significant Life Influencers : · Wilderness of the Olympic Mountains from ages 2 -15 years for weeks at a time with student volunteers, our horses (plus Zorro the donkey) and my parents serving with the Student Conservation Program · Socially activist parents, always involved with some activity that served people and the planet · Living in Finland for a year at age 9, taking in the echoes of war and especially, visiting an SS concentration camp… asking “why?” · Music, Piano, flute, trumpet, guitar, voice…. Was headed for a career as a musician once upon a time…. · Murder of two very close women friends just out of high school, loss of innocence, an intensified quest for wholeness, living the word, “incomprehensible” · Sailing across the Pacific, living on a coral atoll, getting hepatitis · My children, their mother, our time together and the aftermath,,, loss of a dream and waking into a new one, It’s not the Truth, it is just the dream that dies…” · Barbara, NVC, a Love Story, “after the final NO! there is a Yes and on that yes the future of life depends” NVC has given me a treasured tool chest to better live the Rumi poem at the beginning of this bio. Many IIT’s, 15 years of NVC Family Camp at our farm.

Roberta Wall Is a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. She met Marshall Rosenberg 20 years ago when she was a civil rights lawyer in New York City. Since then, she has shared NVC on five continents over 18 years, in Buddhist monasteries, Palestine, religious Jewish communities throughout Israel, the United Nations, and at numerous retreat centers and communities throughout the world. She brought nonviolent communication to communities as diverse as Eco Me in the West Bank, the United Nations and Plum Village Buddhist Monastery - Upper Hamlet in France. She also has the pleasure of practicing Nvc with her three-year-old grandson and the extinction rebellion in her hometown of Asheville North Carolina in the US.

Roxy Manning’s life experience as an Afro-Caribbean immigrant to the United States combined with her academic training and professional work as a licensed clinical psychologist and CNVC Certified Trainer have cultivated her deep passion to support social change, whether that’s with individuals, couples, or institutions. Her own inner work coupled with her professional experience has grown her capacity to meet people with varying levels of education, disparate life experiences, and the most intense feelings in ways that help them feel heard, respected, supported and loved.

"I dream of a world in which each human being can be welcomed unconditionally, no matter what they are passing through I dream of a world in which tears, anger and laughter can all have a space to be. I dream of a world in which no one will ever have to face life traumas and challenges alone Finally, I dream of a world in which empathic support systems would be so widespread that each request for being heard and held would find an answer Sharing NVC full time to individuals, groups and organisations (like schools, companies, communities etc.), as well as co-creating support system communities through empathy and NVC is my drop of contribution towards this new world" https://orianeboyer.com/en/home-."

Shari is a co-founder of NVC in Australia and has offered NVC trainings for almost 20 years. She is inspired by working with people to powerfully and authentically create trust and connection, and transform the quality of relationships. She mentors future NVC trainers, works in organisations, runs a 6 month Peer Leadership Program, holds advanced trainings & coaches one on one. Shari has worked extensively with Dr Marshall Rosenberg and is Certified as an International NVC Trainer with CNVC since 2004.

Makiko is a CNVC certified trainer in Japan. She met NVC when she was engaged in environmental activism and suffering with the enemy image she’se created from her own passion. She truly enjoyed NVC concept of "language of life” which enabled her embrace every aspects of life which opens up more chances to create connections. She found NVC as life-transformative experience and decided to committee herself to live & share its spirituality since then. She’s been enjoying building connection and creating collaborative projects with other NVC practitioner / trainers domestically and internationally. She is a graduate of Bay NVC Leadership Program 2017, and served as translator at Japan IIT 2017. In 2019, she initiated “Earth Empathy Project” with NVC trainer Liv Larsson, Dian Killian, and Jessica Vogt, with support of NVC Academy, to fund call for donation to environmental organization. She is invited to several universities to teach NVC as part of their Environmental Studies program. She is a member of NVC University project in Japan which offers year-long leadership program in Japanese. Together with Martha Lasley and Mari Sakai, she presented NVC - Authentic Facilitation- at IAF Asia conference in 2019. She is a master facilitator of NVC-based "Love Smart Cards" developed by Katrina Vaillancourt. She is currently working on translation of a Marshall Rosenberg’s book with Shigeko Suzuki and Ken Anno. Thanks to NVC spirituality, she enjoys so much gift she’s been receiving from life itself.

I met NVC in 2001. While being a dancer and a choreographer, in 2008 I decided to stop all my artistic activities in order to have my time and energy fully be dedicated to teaching/living NVC. I teach regularly and nonstop Workshops as well as Year Long Courses nationally and internationally. My focus lies on the Embodiment part of NVC- on Radical Honesty/Radical Empathy. My whole being is focused on my relation to people, while my teaching navigates in the subtle delicacy of figuring out ‘what (the fuck) is going on between and within people’ moment by moment by moment.

Azzam Talhami is a Palestinian CNVC Certified Trainer, peace-builder, and mental health advocate. He has trained hundreds of people across the Middle East, Europe and the US in peace-building and Nonviolent Communication (NVC), including at the MidEast International Intensive Training in NVC in Beit Jalla, Palestine. Dedicated to supporting historically conflicting communities towards a just peace, he has trained the students at the Peace Engineers School in Ukraine in sustainable peace and NVC, in partnership with PAX, the Netherlands, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany. Azzam founded the NVC Arabic Academy, leading in-person and online classes for Arabic-speaking journalists, psychologists, and aspiring peace-builders across the world, as well as creating programs that train international peace organizations, such as for forumZFD. Devoted to sharing the story of his people through the lens of compassion, his interests as a guest speaker and teacher include deepening the conversation around power and privilege. He has served as an on-camera political analyst, news correspondent, documentary filmmaker, journalist, translator, and war-zone photographer for many Palestinian, Israeli, Russian, and American media outlets. Among these, he has been a translator and Middle East journalist consultant for the AT&T Original Documentary The Volunteers, on Audience Network, as well as writer and reporter for Huffington Post Arabic and Ma’an News Agency. As a means of self-expression, Azzam pours his heart and soul into writing poetry. One of his particularly compelling pieces, What Does Living Under the Occupation Mean? gained attention from peace activists around the world and was translated into English and Hebrew.

Robert Gonzales’ work, Living Compassion has emerged from a lifetime of inquiry into the intersection between spirituality and human communication. His influences include Dr. Marshall Rosenberg (founder of Nonviolent Communication), Stephen Schwartz (creator of Compassionate Self-Care). Robert received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1989, and was a practicing therapist for many years, offering individual and couples counseling. He met Marshall Rosenberg in 1985 and began teaching NVC in 1986. Robert’s work Living Compassion has evolved as an integration of embodied spirituality and Nonviolent Communication. His trainings offer ways to cultivate daily practices for living life fully, grounded in compassion for one’s self and others.

I believe that in a connected world what is most important is the quality of our connection. I'm a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication who offers communication and conflict resolution training. For 20 years I've explored ways to support deepening connection in and amongst individuals and communities. My experience includes workshop and retreat facilitation at conferences, camps, churches, and classrooms. I'm a former early childhood educator, who discovered NVC in 2007 while working in private schools in upstate New York, USA. I was struck at how beneficial this practice was in helping repair disconnection amongst disparate groups within the school system and I've pursued further practice of NVC with the intention of distributing this training more widely. At the heart of my practice of nonviolent communication is the question how do we want to live with one another? I enjoy exploring with communities ways to engage with that question. Through collaborative facilitation, while embodying the form of nonviolent communication, I try to support communities to invent and implement life-enriching whole systems, and practices for restorative justice.

I was inspired by NVC in 1995 when I had already been working for fifteen years in the field of personal development, engaging mind, feelings, body and soul. I sensed NVC brought something new and wanted to live in the magic of empathy, and to share NVC as widely as possible. I am deeply motivated to take part in the journey of helping humanity learn to resolve conflicts without violence, and to live in interconnection with all life. Along the way I co-created the NVC Dance Floors with Gina Lawrie, now published in many languages. I also wrote ‘Zak’ – a novel for children and adults. I live in the UK and work worldwide.

Kirsten is a family therapist, mediator and certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, through which she has led NVC trainings in Europe, Asia and the Americas. She spent more than 100 days studying with Marshall Rosenberg. Kirsten has devoted her life to supporting others in personal development. Her passion is to contribute to the personal development and healing that enables people to move closer to conflicts and to grow the relational competencies that support social change work. She enjoys working with body, mind and energy consciousness that leads to connection beyond words. People who experience Kirsten’s training and facilitation often express enjoyment of how she models what she teaches with a drizzle of humor. www.kirstenkristensen.com

Liu Yi Liu Yi is the first certified trainer CNVC trainer in China (Mainland) who has been organizing NVC Chinese Net over the last 4 years. Proudly, NVC Chinese Net has established a solid curriculum of NVC studies for Chinese-speakers and a network of communities throughout China to experiment a model of collaboration that can catalyze transformation both for individuals and the organization. The latter particularly fascinates her and inspires the understanding and practice of social-change work. Her life is enriched by both eastern wisdom such as Buddhism, I-Ching and western spiritual practice such as Anthropsophy.

Peggy Smith is a certified trainer with the International Center for Nonviolent Communication, with over four decades of teaching experience. She was a teacher in public and alternative schools for 32 years before devoting her full time energies NVC. She has posted a number of NVC based materials online for free, including feelings & Needs cards and the Courageous Communication curriculum developed with men who are in prison. http://opencommunication.org/resources.html She is a co-founder of the Maine NVC Network. She has done international NVC work through Seeds of Peace International Camp. A student of Mindfulness since 1991, Peggy has been ordained as a teacher by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She has a passion for helping everyone develop their innate capacity for empathy by integrating mindfulness into how we think and communicate.

Sandra Caselato & Yuri Haasz Sandra Caselato & Yuri Haasz are passionate about contributing to creating a world where all voices matter and conflicts are seen as opportunities to notice the human needs that were not met and cared for before. They believe in creating safe and compassionate spaces that allow to get into the necessary difficult conversations that need to take place in order for identities, narratives and cultures to make room for care for self AND others.

Tarek Massaarani is passionate about orienting the inner self, communities, and institutions towards mutual liberation and transformation on the basis of self-reflection, empathy, critical awareness, and strategic nonviolence. Tarek has been learning, teaching, and practicing Nonviolent Communication since 2006, integrating it into parenting, lawyering, cooperative housing, community organizing, dialogue, mediation, and training around the world. Tarek also contributes to capacity building, networking, and program development in support of restorative justice, primarily, in Washington DC.

Sabine Geiger (Germany) Sabine Geiger has been leading workshops all over the world for 30 years, supporting people on their path to freedom and choice. Sabine came into contact with NVC in 1998 and started teaching soon after. As a certified trainer and assessor, she promotes a community-based certification approach. To Sabine, NVC is a journey of the Heart: ”When I crossed paths with Marshall Rosenberg in 1998, I was amazed. How could he describe my inner processes so accurately, without ever meeting me? The empathic, curious and open heart has always seemed natural to me. Discovering NVC and passing it on to others has immensely enriched my life.” Since Sabine recognized conflict as an invitation to learn more about others, restorative approaches have become an integral part of her teaching. Another focus of Sabine’s work is on community. We all live in one, so how about exploring ways to make them work? Sabine supports people to set up communities and make them flourish. Her passion? Tapping into the wisdom of the body. She follows the framework of the NVC process to explore body sensations and link them to feelings & needs. To Sabine, this is a never-ending journey. You are kindly invited to join. Sabine's website: sabinegeiger.com

Samuel is a Centre for Nonviolent Communication certified trainer from Nairobi Kenya. He grew up in Mukuru ‘slums’, the second largest informal settlement in Kenya. Life in the ‘slums ‘enabled him learn self-reliance and self-responsibility for his own actions from 10 years old. He is passionate about social change more so a shift from power over to power with structures. He has been sharing NVC with his childhood community since 2011 through in different capacities through the Mukuru Peace Forum which has created a safe space for youths to engage and explore turning community challenges into opportunities. Samuel has been a part of International Intensive Trainings in Kenya as an organizer and trainer in Austria and Argentina. He is currently an NVC role filler on the Global Social Innovation Academy as the organisation nurtures social entrepreneurs from vulnerable backgrounds who would embrace social accountability and power with team members.

David Weinstock is a Somatic Coach through the Strozzi Institute, Stuart Heller’s Five Rings Coaching Institute, a certified international trainer of Nonviolent Communication and Aikido instructor. His approaches provide insight into the self as well as tools for increasing awareness and the ability to respond with clarity and integrity to the complexities of life. David is the author of: “Becoming What You Need” which explores practices for embodying Nonviolent Communication. David and his wife Judith, along with 8 other families, co-founded an intentional community where they have raised their family and supported community connection and land stewardship since 1990. David is also a Master Goldsmith leading the way with recycled, post-consumer gold and stones. He is a board member and co-founder of Peace Dojos International.

Tadesse Hussein, from Kampala, Uganda, is an educator, working for the past 20 years in pre-primary, primary and high school. He is a certified NVC trainer, focusing on sharing NVC in schools, with kids, teachers and parents. Tadesse is part of the "One School at a Time" organisation https://1schoolatatime.org/ , that is passionate about creating programs to empower older girls to stay in school, aiming to break the cycle of poverty for both their families and communities. He is also consulting to Mango Tree Education Enterprises.

Arnina Kashtan, certified NVC trainer (1992), is the creator of “The Compass”, the process for personal, familial & social liberation, and author of “Falling in Love with Myself Again” (2016). Founder of Meitarim, the Center for The Compass & NVC Studies in Israel (2000), she delivers workshops and trainings, online & offline, to the general public, as well as trainings for coaches, mediators & trainers (in Hebrew, English & Spanish). Arnina's passion and special gifts are in enhancing breakthroughs in awareness, thus bringing forth deep transformations on all levels. Her unique approach combines a profound, laser-like exploration into our innermost core, supported by a rare sense of humor and embedded in deep, embracing empathy. The emerging almost magical space she creates has enabled her students all over the world to open up into new understandings and embark on a fresh, compassionate, and expanding free path.

Kathleen Macferran Certified Trainer and Assessor for the Center for Nonviolent Communication Owner Strength of Connection in Seattle, WA MMus in Conducting, Western Washington University; BA, Whitworth University Kathleen holds a vision for a peaceful, just and sustainable world. She is committed to spending the rest of her days building a world where peace replaces violence, love replaces hate, equity replaces inequity, and all people live meaningful lives. She has worked as a Certified Trainer for the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) since 2003, and as a CNVC Assessor since 2010 when she pioneered a community-based path to certification. Community system building and conflict transformation are passions of hers. Kathleen has worked internationally with individuals, community groups, businesses, schools, colleges, faith-based communities, hospitals, families, prison inmates, and correctional and law enforcement employees. She serves as a trainer for the Freedom Project of Seattle, WA, an organization that supports healing connection and restorative communities both inside and outside prison through the strategies of Nonviolent Communication, mindfulness, racial equity and anti- oppression. Kathleen offers trainings, facilitation, system building and mediation using practical skills that lead to reconciliation with ourselves, our loved ones and our communities. . Kathleen is the author of,and conductor for Giraffe Tales, a children’s CD setting stories to music. She is the conductor on multiple classical music recordings. Her website is www.StrengthofConnection.com where her two TEDx talks can be found.

Robert Maoz Krzisnik, MSc. Psych., CNVC Certified, (Slovenia) From early teenage years I have been inquiring into the questions of meaning of life, the nature of existence and the ways of meeting each other at the heart level. The journey led me through studying Psychology, working as a psychotherapist for 12 years, and working as a trainer, facilitator for over 32 years, covering areas from spiritual retreats to business trainings. Within the context of NVC I am most passionate about its spiritual and embodied dimensions and about conflict mediation. Besides NVC, most important explorations on my journey have so far been Soto Zen, Art of Hosting, Bohmian Dialogue,Contact Improvisation... I have been regularly serving as a trainer on IITs and have shared NVC in over 30 countries in Europe, Mideast, Asia, USA, Australia…My permanent address is in Slovenia, which used to be a part of a country that does not exist anymore, but still resides in my heart as the place where I grew up — Yugoslavia. I have given two TEDx talks, connected with Nonviolent Communication one in 2012 on Global Citizenship, and the other in 2013 on Personal Growth. My website is: www.thatfield.eu

Liv Larsson is the author of more than 20 books. She has been a Certified trainer for Center for Nonviolent Communication since 2002 and an educator since 1992. Liv is also a mediator mainly working with conflicts between the indigenous group in Scandinavia, the Same, and forest and mining industries. Also holds a masters degree in Literature and Creative writing Giving trainings all over the world on different themes and to different audiences since twenty years. Embracing Shame, empathy, vulnerability and power is at the core of all Livs work. She is a mother, is passionate about cross-country skiing and loves to spend her time in nature and lives in the forest of northern Sweden Find out about trainings with Liv: www.friareliv.com
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