Trainers/Facilitators

When I met Marshall in 1996, I came to NVC with a background in teaching, mediation, languages and peace and justice activism. NVC changed my life. I have gained a sustaining confidence that I can bridge differences and conflicts with compassion. My relationship with myself is now mostly characterized by joy, peace and acceptance. Most important to me is that NVC continuously nourishes a hope that the caring world I want to live in is possible.

My experiences in Kabul, Syria, Jordan, El Salvador, Buenos Aires and most recently, Mexico, as well as the US. has confirmed for me the universal application of NVC principles and practices. I see myself as a resource to explore issues of reactivity, conflict, communication, collaboration and reconciliation. My Restoring Kinship work focuses on parents and their adult sons and daughters. I’m available by Skype and phone as well as in person.

Individual and Couples Coaching, Mediation and Training

I started my practicing and sharing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in 2003 as part of my passion for building stronger relationships, (focusing on, though not limited to, Couples and Parenting,) while developing more integrated and sustainable communities. I completed my NVC Trainer Certification with CNVC in 2016.

I've been gifted by the experience of bringing NVC into the Oregon State Penitentiary, Columbia River Correctional Institution, the Reentry Transition Center in Portland, and at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (for Women). I currently offer Individual and Couples Coaching, mediation and various trainings to my greater Portland community and globally via zoom. Having been a Rose City NVC Teacher Training Program (TTP) participant myself, I'm now excited to offer this same opportunity (as sole proprietor of Rose City NVC), to other teachers in training.

My personal NVC journey includes many other forms of emotional/spiritual growth work with an emphasis on meditative and body awareness practices. I integrate practices which allow me other avenues to strengthen the essence of our NVC work. While I believe words and the form on NVC can help my participants get into a place of greater compassion and understanding, I also believe that holding a space of compassion and understanding in myself creates ease in adopting the new words (silently and out loud) for my participants. My spiritual outlook related to NVC is to align my daily will in progress towards awareness, acceptance, action and sharing the gifts I've received from this work. My vision for an NVC world is one in which most adults will hold this type of unconditional and loving space most of the time, supporting each other in the hard times, and in continued healing and growth, so we can be fully engaged to more of each moment on this earth.

Doyle Banks is a Portland, OR resident who has had extensive training in Nonviolent Communication including an International Intensive Training (IIT) with Marshall Rosenberg, a year as a participant in the BayNVC Leadership Program (2013), followed by a year as an assistant in the 2014 program. Roxy Manning, Kit Miller, Robert Gonzales and Fred Sly are some of the trainers from whom he has learned.

Since 2008, Doyle has offered workshops, Foundations/Basics classes, training and practice groups for local non-profits and has been a presenter for the past several years at the Mount Hood Community College's annual Spring Peace Conference. He also offers NVC-based mediation as well as life and relationship coaching.

Jody Bellant Scheer, MD has offered classes and trainings in NVC to parents, medical, business, and community groups since 2004. She is a pediatrician whose dream is creating healthy relationships and peaceful co-existence within all families, institutions and communities of the world. She has worked since 1982 with sick newborns, premature infants and their families in Portland, OR. She is co-founder of Medical and Educational Relief International Association (MERIA), Inc, a nonprofit working to provide essential medical and educational services worldwide.

Tim and his wife, Elaine Hultengren, have team taught both in prison settings and in the community. Part of the Oregon Prison Project teaching team since 2010, they now recruit and help train others joining that team. Trained in NVC, meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, emotional intelligence and trauma-informed care, the couple brings added experience and exercises to their work.

We are a NVC teaching space located in inner SE Portland! Our primary Trainers are Xander MacSwan, and CNVC Certified Sandra Amiry. Our mission is to increase access to peace and connection within our community by supporting our clients in resolving both inner and outer conflicts. We strive to make our courses accessible through sliding scale pricing and limited scholorships. We are honored to support the NVC movement in the world, and hope to continually find new ways to uplift our community.

Steve has received more than 1,000 hours of NVC training from Marshall Rosenberg, Robert Gonzales, Miki and Arnina Kashtan, Klaus Karstaedt, Irmtraud Kauschat, and other distinguished teachers, and has co-facilitated an NVC practice group for 11 years. He has taught NVC to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, teachers in grades 1-12 and in Palestine, former prison inmates, therapists, and church and community members. Steve has also been a regular volunteer listener in the Empathy Tent at the Eugene Saturday Market for more than 5 years.

Bryn has been learning and sharing the Compassionate (Nonviolent) Communication skills created by Marshall Rosenberg since 2001. She is President of the Board of the Center for Compassionate Living (CCL) in Bend, a nonprofit that offers communication skills, workshops, classes and practice groups. Bryn enjoys sharing these skills at CCL, for local groups and organizations and at Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras. She also serves on the board of the Oregon Network for Compassionate Communication (ORNCC) and is a founder of ORNCC.

LaShelle Lowe-Chardé is passionate about helping people express their deepest values in their relationships and creating clarity and connection with self and others.

She began her professional career with a master’s degree in school psychology. In addition to nine years in public schools, she spent several years facilitating group healing work for adolescent youth labeled “at-risk”. During that same time she led leadership and teamwork trainings for businesses and organizations around Portland, Oregon.

Along the way she found Compassionate/Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and began training with Marshall Rosenberg and other internationally known NVC trainers. She immediately knew that Compassionate Communication was the missing piece. It offers a deep and broad yet simple understanding of human nature along with a concrete set of tools to help us act and live from a place of clarity and compassion. For LaShelle, Compassionate Communication is the hands and feet of spirituality. In 2006, she was certified as a NVC trainer.

In addition to certification in Nonviolent Communication, she has completed a three year training in Hakomi - Body Centered Therapy and introductory trainings in Emotionally Focused Therapy and with the Gottman Institute.

In 2004, she founded her business, Wise Heart (www.wiseheartpdx.org). Since that time she has served as a trainer, private coach, and mentor for the learning and practice of Compassionate Communication and mindfulness. LaShelle teaches locally as well as through video conferencing online. She has offerings for couples, women, and the general public in addition to trainings for local nonprofit organizations. Her offerings focus on combining NVC with mindfulness and a subtle understanding of reactivity and relationship skills.

In 1999 Kathy chose to move her work focus in a new direction and she became executive director of an organization mentoring troubled teens. In order to better support the youth and families served by the organization, Kathy searched for a communication tool to build and sustain respectful relationships based on trust. In 2000 she was ecstatic when she discovered Compassionate Communication and recognized its power to transform lives. She began training with Marshall Rosenberg and has since dedicated herself to living and sharing the principles of NVC. She now supports others in the practical day-to-day learning and application of the process.

Drawing on her prior management experience, Kathy also designs and delivers trainings to diverse organizations and businesses. Compassionate (Nonviolent) Communication (NVC) provides a simple yet effective framework to ask for what we want with clarity and authenticity. By facilitating the practice of Compassionate Communication in work environments, Kathy has taught individuals, executives and business leaders to connect in ways that unify and create effective work teams.

Kathy facilitates quarterly courses as well as workshops for individuals new to NVC. For more than 15 years she has led practice groups for those wanting to deepen their practice of NVC through her ongoing coaching and support in a small group environment. Whether you are stuck in a disconnecting communication pattern within your family or are feeling challenged to express yourself with clarity and honesty in your workplace, learn how to apply this powerful tool.

I've been actively pursuing competency in NVC since 2008 or so and figure I'll be working on it for the rest of my time on this planet. I facilitated NVC classes at Oregon State Penitentiary as part of the Oregon Prison Project for about three years and loved to learn with the inmates. Needs met for me there were primarily connection, community and contribution. I've taken quite a few workshops from a variety of trainers including LaShelle Charde, Selene Aitken, Sara Peyton, Robert Gonzales, Fred Sly, Gary Baran and Liv Monroe; helped facilitate NVC community classes with Gary Baran from time to time; and I'm in a practice group in Yachats. I'm actively working on bringing more NVC to the coast. We will have our third yearly training out here this March.

I first encountered Compassionate/Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in the late 1990s.

Learning that feelings were pointing to needs met/unmet was like a lightning bolt for me; it was the missing piece that finally made everything make sense. I'd always believed that Thriving was our birthright. NVC showed me that our feelings guide us to the Life-Needs that are our pathways to thriving.

NVC also helped me understand that my anger was just letting me know I had long-unmet needs aching to be met. There wasn't anything wrong with me, and I didn't have to feel ashamed of my feelings. I just needed to learn how to answer the Call to Thriving.

But it got even better. In 2013, I learned essential elements of Relational Neuroscience and Attachment Theory that, when integrated with NVC and my Thriving Life principles, finally explained some of the stuff I'd been struggling to understand for decades, like:

* why we can't "do NVC" when we're upset
* what "stress" really is, and why it's so dangerous for both our physical health and our relationships
* why compassionate, authentic, resonant community is essential for our well-being, and is central to our capacity for growth and genuine fulfillment
* what really, truly dissolves our automatic reactions and restores authentic presence and choice
* why it's so dangerous to have compassion for others without also developing healthy boundaries and care for ourselves
* down-to-earth ways we can expand our capacity for presence and authentic choice, regardless of circumstances
* how to connect with our deepest authenticity and natural power and genius, and become free to make the difference that only we can make in the world

This work has helped me come home to being human, and given me the unspeakably precious gift of being able to share "this being human" with you and others in a way that fulfills all my dearest dreams for authentic, attuned connection.

I live and practice everything I teach. My deepest passions are profound authenticity, compassion, and responsive accountability, offering a deeply safe, gentle living model of how we -- as both flawed and transcendent human beings -- can co-create a deeply nourishing world and relationships that recognize the practical realities of being human, while truly honoring and supporting everyone's thriving.

There is no pain that we can't turn into food for the heart and medicine for the soul, if we just keep practicing what works, in human connection.

I'm been so blessed to be a part of our Thriving Life community that welcomes everything we are -- from what is most magnificent to us, to our "warts and farts and ugly crazy parts" -- to be fully Seen, Gotten, and Celebrated.

Welcome home to this journey into Thriving!

I've been practicing and using Compassionate Communication for about 15 years, both in my personal and professional life. Since 2002, I've been doing workshops and facilitating groups in a variety of settings, working with individuals, faith groups, activists, intentional communities, non-profits, and schools. I work with groups with creativity, empathy, and humor, often incorporating Socratic dialog, role play, and other creative activities to deepen the workshop experience.

For my own education, I've done several "International Intensives" with the founder of NVC (Marshall Rosenberg) and the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and other advanced workshops. I'm passionate about bringing this form of communication and relating to people, as I see it contributing to and building a more peaceful, just, sustainable world. Social permaculture is also a passion of mine, and I find NVC integrates wonderfully with aspects of that. I did my Permaculture Design Certificate Course with Geoff Lawton in 2014.

Chuck Powers has been practicing and integrating Nonviolent Communication consciousness since 2004, and is grateful for many teachers and influences, including: Marshall Rosenberg, LaShelle Charde, Susan Skye and Sadie Scabarozi. A graduate of Susan’s Pacific Leadership NVC Training program, Chuck has been a member of and facilitated several practice groups, and was on the board and past treasurer of the Oregon Network for Compassionate Communication. A Zen practice also informs and supports his NVC practice. Father of two and a grandfather, Chuck works by day as a CPA and lives in Vancouver, Washington.

Aimee Ryan passionate about co-creating a world where everyone is empowered to show up as their fullest selves, where everyone’s needs matter, and where there is space for all voices to be heard. As a way to fulfill these passions, she offers conflict transformation and mediation services and trainings, Nonviolent Communication workshops, group facilitation and organizational development, and collaborative coaching.

Aimee has been studying mediation, as well as mindfulness and yoga practices, for over 17 years, and is a Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, a Certified Mediator, and Certified Yoga Instructor. Her experience ranges from working with nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, schools, and prisons, to communities, families and individuals. Currently living in Ashland, OR, her life is now largely focused co-creating social technologies for thriving, equitable communities, organizations, and movements.

My empathic communication journey began in Portland, OR where I was lucky enough to find Kathy Marchant for a facilitator and mentor. I took the introductory course to NVC and then participated in a weekly practice group for the next 4 years until I moved with my husband to Hawaii. Once there we facilitated in introductory course and then ran a weekly practice group for the next 2 years. During this time I also started blogging about empathic communication on our website, www.windwardempathy.com, and have also started an empathic blog at the LA Post Examiner, called the Giraffe Life. We have moved now to Eugene, OR and want to continue our passion of sharing this work of Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. I believe this isn't just a process, but a consciousness that leads to a happier, more free life.

Fred has been learning and teaching NVC since 1999. Along the way he earned a PhD in Psychology addressing the reactive basis of violence and how empathy promotes peace and accountability. Additionally, Fred was instrumental in creating and directing the Oregon Prison Project (OPP) that currently offers classes in four Oregon adult facilities, one post-release program, and one youth authority facility as well. Fred also started and grew Rose City NVC, a Portland area teaching organization currently offering NVC classes to individuals, organizations, couples, families, and businesses in Oregon. Fred is currently retired from both OPP and Rose City NVC in order to work with those struggling with the symptoms of psychological trauma, veterans with PTSD, prisons systems that want to establish and grow NVC programs, and those wanting to create cooperative community. Along with Liv Monroe, Fred offers an annual NVC retreat at Breitenbush in early June.

Tina Taylor is a Registered Nurse (since 1981) with her Master's degree in Counseling (1995) and national certification as a yoga instructor. Stress Solutions LLC is her private practice, offering holistic stress management, communication skills training, and mediation; NVC has been her primary model since 2008. As a mediator she has specialties in Eldercare Mediation and Medical Mediation. From 2010 to 2020 she volunteered with the Oregon Prison Project, bringing NVC training to inmates at Oregon State Penitentiary. She also volunteered 2009-2015 with Neighbor-to-Neighbor Mediation Services in Corvallis, providing free mediation for small claims courts and community cases. She has hundreds of hours of NVC training by CNVC-certified and other NVC teachers. Tina offers individual and relationship stress management consulting, NVC workshops, inservices for professional and private groups, and a variety of related services. Please feel free to call to discuss how she can help you meet your needs.