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Alliance for Nonviolent Communication Bios |
If you'd like to coordinate a workshop in your area with NVC trainers, please contact Jeff Brown or Myra Walden.
Here is more about the Alliance for Nonviolent Communication volunteers.
Myra Walden—Certified NVC Trainer
Originally from Mexico, I came to the United States in 1983, when I met and married my husband Peter. Peter gave me the opportunity to fulfill my life's dream: to go to college so I could make a living supporting people seeking to heal from emotional distress. I went to the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago, where I obtained a B.A. in psychology, and then to the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, where I got a master's in clinical psychology. I have a private therapy practice in West Chicago.
I came upon Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in March 1999 when I attended a workshop with Dr. Marshall Rosenberg in Chicago. At the end of the day, I was blown away with the possibilities I saw this philosophy had for promoting peace in the world. Since then, I have pursued NVC wholeheartedly, and this has contributed to increased inner peace as I treat myself more compassionately, and greater harmony in my relationships.
In March of 2000 I received a certification to teach Nonviolent Communication, and this has become my greatest joy and passion. As I see it, embodying and teaching NVC enables me to sow seeds of peace.
May you, too, find Nonviolent Communication meaningful.
Polly Cumby
I'm mother to two grown children, and have been a Speech/Language Pathologist for a long time. Working with children with severe disabilities, I've always valued the importance of the ability to communicate clearly. I've been studying and practicing to improve my Nonviolent Communication skills for about 4 years now, including attending one International Intensive Training. For me, NVC provides concrete tools with which to try to live my faith and beliefs more fully, to try to be less judgmental, more forgiving of myself and others, be more honest, and just live more comfortably in my skin and in the world. I believe that peace begins with each one of us individually, and as we learn to relate to even just one other person compassionately and peacefully, we extend compassion and peace in the world and in our own hearts.
Paul Christensen
I came to Illinois in 1985 to study at the University of Illinois, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music (LAS) in 1992 and a Bachelor's (1992) and a Master's (1994) in Electrical Engineering. Looking back, I think I should have chosen Computer Science, but I felt too afraid I'd look like a nerd. "Electrical Engineering" just sounded more manly, too!
I love books, music, coffee, and computers. You can usually find me at Amazon.com or, if not, at the coffee shop reading a book from Amazon.com. Most likely you'll find me reading a book by Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, or another of my favorite New England Transcendentalists.
I program computers daily, swim three times a week, play piano, play clarinet, and in 753 BCE, with Romulus and Remus, I co-founded Rome. Okay, I may have exaggerated somewhat on at least one of these.
I first learned about NVC in 2001 at a Loving More conference in California. Since then I've eagerly participated in a number of NVC workshops and trainings as well as retreats with the Foundation for Community Encouragement, the Human Awareness Institute, and the Network for a New Culture. Until I learned the principles behind NVC I never satisfactorily understood people's internal motives and motivations. I appreciate the clarity I've gotten from an understanding of NVC, for it lets me enjoy closer connections with people I care about. Especially importantly, for me, NVC lets me enjoy a closer connection with myself, as it helps me gain clearer and more compassionate insight into my own fears, worries, joys, and needs.
Leslie Ritter-Jenkins
What is most meaningful to me is to balance my contribution to my family, my role as a pastor, my love of working in the garden and peace making. In all these I enjoy the journey of seeking truth. In seeking what is true I love the puzzles that are part of the process.
I grew up in Urbana, IL where I enjoyed the many opportunities that a university- city- farm community provide. The ambiance of research and learning, the rich opportunity to participate in and view art, the peace and calm of open space, round barns, and the rhythms of planting and harvesting all contributed to who I am. My home church embraced progressive Christianity, that both nurtured souls and witnessed to peacemaking in so many wonderful ways in our community and abroad.
Nonviolent Communication was just waiting for me to look its way so it might settle into my consciousness. For me, it is the ocean of communication linking the continents of knowledge I have enjoyed exploring. In the coming years I hope to share my enthusiasm for NVC and continue to improve my fluency. My family too, hopes for my continued improved fluency!
Harlan Johnson
My MS in Marriage and Family Therapy is from Northern Illinois University and my BA in Philosophy from Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.
I've used NVC for decades in my personal and professional life, and it has enriched relationships including my marriage and my relationship with my daughter. I was introduced to Marshall Rosenberg in the late 70's and have been teaching elements of NVC ever since to clients and in workshops. This year I revisited his writings and discovered that I'd missed two major elements of NVC—the focus on need, and the ultimate goal of heart connection which makes violence all but impossible!
For years I have been working to overcome racism, and I have a passion for peacemaking, embracing diversity, fairness and effective communication. All of these come together in a vision I have conceived called "Come Together," which, I believe, can bring social integration to Rockford and the world. To learn more about it write me at: harlan@actualizations.net. In the immediate future, I am working to develop training events and an NVC weekly practice group in Rockford, IL.
Mark Zinzow
When I was in high school I first read Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (SIASL) and saw a model of human relationships that worked (to support honesty, joy, and sharing) far better than the dysfunctional family and society I grew up in. Ever since I have been searching for a magic or understanding similar to that of the fictional Martian language in that novel. I've read of, practiced, or studied a number of self-improvement and spiritual beliefs including several meditation techniques, mediation, Theosophy, several forms of bodywork and healing like Reiki, been inspired by Native American pipe women, made friends with spiritualists and psychics, joined several 12-step groups, joined the Church of All Worlds (CAW, based on SIASL), and sought understanding, insights, and support in a diversity of friends, lovers, faiths, and teachings.
SIASL helped me to question the assumptions and values of my culture as I dealt with relationships and sexuality issues in college. I also began to rebuild self-esteem through serving others. Early in my career I founded a Personal Computer User's group, and eventually led another for over a decade. I also co-founded and led for several years a bisexual support group that helped myself and many others understand and accept our sexual orientation, and its impact on our lives. At that time I also started serving on the advisory council for a local Self-Help Center. I continue to be drawn to projects involving idealism, for example I've been recently appointed as a director for Project Gutenberg (an organization that provides free electronic books online).
When I first read Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion, I knew I had finally found a language with the power to enrich lives in reality with hope to match the fantasy that earlier inspired me. I've been committed to reprogram my patterns of judging and blaming to make life more wonderful for myself and others through developing an honest literacy of feelings and needs ever since. Honoring what is alive in us in NVC strikes me as very similar to recognizing the divine creators in all of us that formed the basis for Heinlein's fiction, CAW, and many other spiritual beliefs. Namaste!
John Cabral
I live in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb on Chicago's western border, with my wife and two children. But I was born in Brazil and have spent important years of my life living in that country, in Uruguay, and in Mexico. I am fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and have traveled throughout Latin America. I am an urban planner by trade with experience in community revitalization in city neighborhoods.
I have been using Nonviolent Communication to have better relationships with neighbors and co-workers and bosses, and more accepting and loving relationships with friends and family. But I also have a strong desire to contribute to a more successful movement for social change. I long to apply Nonviolent Communication in social struggle situations and help others to do so. I also want to use NVC for mediation between parties in conflict. I sense that it is a powerful tool in this area.
I have been getting training in Nonviolent Communication since 2002, when I attended an introductory workshop with Marshall Rosenberg in Oak Park. In April 2003 I took a three-day training with Dr. Rosenberg in Warrenville, Illinois and I have since continued my training through workshops, books, audiotapes, CDs, and videotapes, and local training events.
I feel very excited and happy because this new outlook, this new way of talking to people and hearing people, has led me also to a new way of talking to and hearing myself, without judgment or blame. I am especially grateful for that.
In addition to now being able to treat myself in a much more accepting, loving way, I can see that my relationship with my children and my wife have steadily improved. I feel far more confident and hopeful about humanity, and I have far less fear, than at any stage in my previous life, even though I clearly see the awful dangers we are presently faced with.
In my Nonviolent Communication training I have been gaining a greater and greater sense of my individual power to contribute to life in many small ways every day. I think the most liberating lesson has been the lesson of choice, the conscience that every minute I can choose what I'm going to do, how I'm going to deal with others, and whether I'm going to enrich life or detract from it.
And finally, I credit Marshall Rosenberg and Nonviolent Communication for helping me move on a path of spiritual awareness that I had only very haltingly begun to tread in recent years. This spiritual development is based on my new understanding of the power of gratefulness, of being aware of the beauty that can be found every moment, no matter how gloomy the situations in which we find ourselves.
Ruth Snyder
I was first introduced to Nonviolent Communication in December 2005. I was at my sister's house and noticed this book in her pile. Because of my interest in personal growth, especially related to communication, I immediately began reading the book. I attended my first NVC workshop in early 2006.
I'm eager to help promote the use of NVC, often called compassionate communication. Before meeting Mark, Paul, Polly, Myra, and Harlan (also in this ANVC network), I had never met people that cared just because they cared. I felt a deeper connection for a deeper purpose in life. I want to continue to reach others in the same way. Before long I realized that this way of communication is exactly what we need in the Autism community I live in.
For those that do not understand what Autism is I would like to explain as simply as I can. Autism is considered a "disorder" because its symptoms, varying from mild to severe, are debilitating. The labels of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, or Development Delay, are among some of the terms used in the spectrum. This is a real neurological difference that is not yet understood. Regardless of the label, the three common challenges in all individuals in the spectrum include 1. Communication, 2. Socialization skills, and 3. Idiosyncrasies. I want to learn communication hoping to reach people that need help and understanding. Learning to compassionately communicate and share it with others is a top priority for me.
Chuck Hutchcraft
I worked as a reporter and editor for several Chicago newspapers, including the Tribune and Pioneer Press, for more than 30 years. Toward the end of that time I felt a different calling, fed by my volunteer work with the American Friends Service Committee and my Quaker and Zen practice. It's funny how this works, but at some point as I was feeling this calling, I discovered Marshall Rosenberg and Nonviolent Communication. In 2001, I was invited to travel with an AFSC delegation to Ecuador and Colombia to witness the impact that Plan Colombia—our country's war on drugs—was having on the people in those countries. The tilt I had been experiencing shifted completely. In 2002, I was hired as the Chicago-area coordinator for AFSC. While there, I helped create Eyes Wide Open, an exhibit on the costs of the Iraq war that has been traveling the country since spring 2004. In 2005, I was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest. Currently I am the statewide organizer for the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. While working with the ICADP, I have been involved in the formation of the Coalition for Nonviolent Communities, which is working to establish criteria for the creation of communities of nonviolence. In my work with AFSC and ICADP, I have seen how difficult it is to engage people who hold different views and beliefs. I also have come to understand how important—how critical—it is for us to be able to talk and listen to each other despite these differences. This is how I came to contact the Alliance for Nonviolent Communication. It is my sense that it is more important to come together in our differences than convince someone who thinks differently than I do that I am right.
Jeff Brown—Certified NVC Trainer
I have been studying and practicing Nonviolent Communication since June 1999, when I attended my first workshop in San Diego, CA. I immersed myself in learning NVC by organizing a training and a practice group in my hometown at the time, Bloomington, IN. Eventually, my learning curve evolved into wanting to be a teacher, so I became a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication in 2005. I now live in St. Louis, MO, where I moved to in 2006.
One of my favorite applied topics for NVC is social change, because it gives me an opportunity to engage in the political process in a much different way that I did in my twenties, when I worked for three nonprofit organizations in the areas of conservation and environmental protection. I have been trained in community mediation and victim-offender reconciliation, which allows me to apply NVC consciousness and tools in the conflict resolution field.
I am also drawn to the spiritual foundations of NVC, which resonate closely with my practices of yoga, meditation and authentic movement. Additionally, in 2005, I entered a graduate program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica in Los Angeles, CA, and this program is also very complementary to my practice of NVC.
I am honored to be offering NVC throughout the U.S., primarly in the my native Midwestern U.S. (I was born and raised near Cleveland, OH) and on the West Coast. Since I began actively teaching NVC in 2004, I have taught in 13 states across the country.
Tiffany Brownlie
Hello Everyone! I'm Tiffany and I am happy to be part of the ANVC! For several years now, I have been quite interested in studying NVC, and have also facilitated and participated in a practice group. Even when I am not studying or practicing NVC much, I believe that it is still in my consciousness and mind often. It is a big part of my life!
Studying NVC helps to encourage me to actually practice using the love that I get in touch with from my other spiritual practices. It reminds me not only to be aware of when I'm feeling pleasant, peaceful feelings, but to also accept and empathize with my not-so-pleasant feelings, and send myself love at those times. And it reminds me that there is hope—that I can try to get to the root of those feelings (and not just ignore them and hope they go away, which some other spiritual ideas suggest to do). And if I can get to the root—the needs I have—then I am free, free to love this need, cherish it, and open up to ways to meet it! But first I must be brave enough to face the feelings, and give myself love. . . . And so NVC is a way to put God's healing and love in action! And we can shower this love to ourselves and others when we practice it!
So I am happy to have added NVC to my spiritual practices! Ever since I started meditating about 8 years ago (after several years of depression), I have decided that my main life goal is "to be centered and one with the Divine in every moment!" And so I continue to meditate and pray regularly to help me get in touch with, and manifest, the Divine love, strength, and hope within me so that I can practice my life goal (and use NVC better, too)!
I believe I am also fulfilling my purpose in life by the things I do. I am working at an adult day care center for seniors right now, volunteering at a convalescent center for seniors and developmentally challenged individuals, and I'm also a hospice volunteer. These all help to meet my needs for contribution, growth, and experience and competence in fulfilling my purpose in life—which I believe is "to be a loving, empathic presence to myself and others." I believe love and empathy is all we could really use in this world! And NVC is one way I practice being loving and empathic!
Finally, I participate in various activities and connect with people to try to meet several needs of mine in my life, so that I feel fulfilled! I love to sing, dance, and play with kids, which helps to meet my needs for beauty, creative play and self-expression, and inspiration. Spending time with my family and people from various churches and meetings helps to meet my needs for support, connection and community. And finally, I experience communion with God through my spiritual practices, which include being in the Moment with my "Nature buddies" (who I have forever heartstrings attached to) and my companion animals, who offer me such great accepting, mutual love. I strive though, to be in the moment with everyone—being vulnerable: sharing my heart and soul and empathically receiving someone else's heart and soul . . . this is the purpose I strive for—the purpose I am fulfilling!
Rhonda Mills
In 2000, I divorced after 14 years of marriage, and became very interested in personal growth and consciously choosing how I'd like to live, parent my two children, and contribute to humanity. In 2001, I began teaching yoga and meditation, and continued to share my lifelong love of dance and expressive movement through various classes and workshops.
When I experienced my first Nonviolent Communication workshop in early 2006, I was amazed. From my very first workshop, this beautiful process has supported me in connecting with and understanding myself and others in profound and life changing ways. I am celebrating my growth! Since then, I have logged over 200 workshop hours and entered the certification program to become a CNVC certified trainer. I joyfully share the language tools and consciousness of Nonviolent Communication with others in classes and workshops, inspiring and empowering myself in the process!
I am particularly interested in the spiritual component of NVC, and sharing with others how the "language tools" and consciousness of NVC can help us focus our attention to connect with love and divine energy in ourselves and others—in all human beings—regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion, or any other perceived differences. I am also fascinated by integrating body awareness and movement into NVC practice to deepen self-connection with feelings and needs, and in expressions of honesty and empathy with others.
My yoga teaching has also evolved, and I currently teach Tantric Hatha and Ayurvedic Yoga, with an emphasis on supporting individuals with specific yoga, breathwork, meditation and lifestyle practices to bring healing, balance, and integration to body, mind, heart, and spirit.
My passion is to utilize NVC as part of a holistic approach to healing, to merge spiritual and practical ways of being in the world, to contribute to social change from the inside out, and to catalyze community for inspiring and empowering others to heal, to participate fully in their relationships, and individually and collectively to joyfully share light and love on the planet.
Timyra Cowling
During my first NVC workshop, I was immediately impressed by it as a tool for the concerted development of kindness and compassion. Soon after, I experienced its effectiveness not only within one's heart, but interpersonally, even when the other person has no knowledge of NVC. So I began an intense personal study of NVC, attended an IIT, and began teaching a class among the staff of the meditation retreat center where I was living. After much appreciation and encouragement, I have returned home to the midwest to continue teaching and sharing NVC.
Through sharing NVC, I hope to facilitate inner transformation and healing, while delivering practical skills for communicating and connecting with others. My work is informed by an intense personal meditation practice, which has included a 6 week silent meditation retreat and a year and a half of service and immersion at a meditation retreat center. It is also the most satisfying response I have found to the suffering and oppression which I studied while earning a B.A. in Women's Studies and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Through learning and sharing, compassion and activism—may NVC bless you too with peace in your heart, your relationships, and your world.
Linda Brefeld
I am a mother of four and a grandmother to one. I have been a teacher for 30 years with a deep belief that each child deserves dignity and respect. I was introduced to NVC about 5 years ago and find it to be a model which allows deep understanding and the ability to comunicate and connect with others.
Ann Bruckelmeyer
My interest is to teach to individuals, couples and groups at large. I'm open to everyone. I've been incorporating NVC in a private practice/therapeutic setting for awhile but more recently, adding the teaching/coaching aspect. I've been collaborating with a teacher in a first grade school. The teacher offers curriculum writing training and I'm adding the NVC piece. Together we are refining a 10 week program spread out over 20 weeks that will be tested and doable for participating teachers next Fall called "Creating Peace in the Classroom." Hopefully parents won't be far behind! I like the idea of teaching to people who pass NVC on to others consciously or by their changed consciousness. I enjoy the ripple effect. As a personal vision and specialty subset, I would like to incorporate my knowledge and awareness of the vast deep Divine Love that is always present to us in our own heart and available in the heart to heart connections with others. A layers of the heart training—kinda like a sustainable NVC & Rumi experience.
Rachel Buddeberg
I grew up in Aachen, Germany. Upon graduating high school, I wanted to learn about other areas of the world. Rather than traveling, I signed up with Action Reconciliation/Service for Peace, a German volunteer organization, and worked at a senior citizen center in Indianapolis. After getting married and having a child, I stayed in the U.S. even after my marriage ended.
I received a master's degree in marketing research from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In my interest to learn Nonviolent Communication, I co-founded NVC DuPage, which was later reborn as Alliance for NVC. Since then, I have moved to San Francisco and am no longer involved with ANVC. I remain an honorary member of the Alliance and I am happy to hear about its development.