— Martha Lasley, Founder and Certified Coach, Leadership that Works
- This event has passed.
Living Peace at Home and at Work
January 23, 2021 - January 26, 2021
Are you interested in developing skills to keep your heart strong in the face of the immense challenges of our times?
The tools of Nonviolent Communication can support us to keep ourselves healthy in turbulent times and to make a difference for everyone whose lives we touch.
Join us for this special residential retreat program where we’ll delve into NVC as an embodied practice for transforming our lives, relationships and world. During this five-day retreat, you’ll learn ways to:
- Stay grounded and balanced in challenging moments
- Enhance your ability to listen well and speak with clarity
- Deepen intimate and family relationships
- Develop insight and self-mastery
This retreat is now full with a very short waitlist.
About the retreat
This online retreat includes two interactive sessions per day with teaching, practice and discussion: from 9 – 11 am and 1 – 3 pm PST, plus the option to join a one-hour empathy practice group each day (empathy groups will be offered at various times to accommodate times zones and work schedules).
Our weekend sessions will focus on applying Nonviolent Communication (NVC) at home and with friends, while Monday and Tuesday will focus on using NVC in the workplace. Typical topics include:
- Being in a partnership or being single
- Parenting or connecting with children in other contexts
- Communicating across any kind of divide
- Collaborating at work
- Helping others work through conflict
“There is no replacement for working with this material in an interactive group field with a grounded and spiritually mature, capable instructors. It’s been invaluable!”
— Dawn Neal, Life Coach, Berkeley CA.
Who’s it for?
This retreat is appropriate for those new to Nonviolent Communication as well as for experienced practitioners seeking to bring their practice to a new level. Previous retreats have drawn therapists, activists, teachers, health care providers, parents, writers, artists, engineers, life coaches, and many more.
Get support in key communication areas:
- Understanding internal conflicts or “stuck” places
- Making clear decisions
- Collaborating more effectively
- Resolving conflict with colleagues
- Working with clients, patients, and customers
- Growing communication skills with children
- Embodying nonviolence in social change work
“Learning NVC has changed my perspective on communication… It has positively impacted my relationships with adults and with my students. I feel more space for compassion and understanding, even in stressful times.”
Program Leadership
The Living Peace Retreat will be co-led by Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainers Roxy Manning, Ph.D. and Oren Jay Sofer, and will be supported by a team of experienced NVC assistants. Our leadership team is designed to provide significant coaching in small groups, with an average teacher to student ratio of four or five to one.
Roxy Manning, Ph.D., a CNVC Certified Trainer and clinical psychologist, has co-led several of BayNVC’s depth programs since 2008. She is fiercely committed to bringing a critical awareness of power, privilege and systemic inequities to the NVC framework and has developed curricula that acknowledges and seeks to remove some of the unconscious bias inherent in how NVC has been shared. Roxy has worked with several regional NVC organizations as well as businesses worldwide to help them examine ways to make NVC spaces more welcoming to people from a wide variety of social locations.
Oren Jay Sofer, a CNVC Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer, teaches workshops and retreats on meditation and communication nationally. His teaching emphasizes how awareness practice and communication training deepen one another in a synergistic manner. He holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for healing trauma, and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council. Oren is also the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication and co-author of Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Adolescents.
Program Cost
This retreat is offered on a sliding scale with scholarships available. People who contribute at the top of the sliding scale support our ability to offer spaces at a cost below the bottom of the sliding scale to those who would otherwise be unable to participate. If the sliding scale is not sustainable, we invite you to apply for a scholarship here (scholarship applications are due by January 9th.)
Sliding Scale: $750 – $250
Our sliding scale is intended to make this retreat accessible to people of a wide range of income levels. Please choose an amount that reflects your ability to contribute. Questions? Email us.
This retreat is now full with a very short waitlist.
Sponsored by BayNVC
Financial Aid & Accessibility
We wish to support all people who are passionate about this work to have access to it, independent of their current access to financial resources. We recognize that, because of various social and economic systems, some people experience financial barriers to participating in events with cost-based attendance.
We are explicitly inviting participation by people who come from any of the following communities. We know that when these people are included, all communities benefit:
People with visible or invisible disabilities
People who do not have white skin privilege and/or who come from communities who have been targets of racism
Low-income/Poor or Working class people (please refer to this definition as a guideline when self-identifying in this category)
If you identify as part of one of the communities listed above and would like to be considered for a low-cost space, please click here to apply for a scholarship. Preference will be given to those who are new to this work and who have not attended past events at reduced or no cost.
Scholarship requests? Apply here (scholarship applications are due by January 9th.)
Questions about this retreat? Feel free to email us here.
“Roxy is a natural healer with a huge capacity to hold pain and and create space for deep healing. I love the way Roxy facilitates groups; there’s something about her energy and the way she leans forward that inspires me and gives me hope.”
“I was blown away by Oren’s ability to clearly, consciously, and potently articulate and bring to life so many teachings. The organization of his retreat was flawless, which made it much easier for me to see the connections between various ideas and practices. I would be thrilled to spend another retreat with Oren.”
— Retreat Participant
“Being able to tune in to myself and become more fully present while in the presence of challenges with loved ones has been revolutionary. This training is making me more attuned as a therapist.”
— Kitty Costello, Author and Psychotherapist, San Francisco, CA
“This practice has brought me closer to my family and friends than any other life event. I see the world as a more beautiful place now.”
— Laura W., Middle School Teacher, Oakland, CA.
