Most people learn Nonviolent Communication because something "out there" isn't working -- a conversation, a relationship, or a work situation.

If something still feels stuck --You keep having the same arguments. You keep getting triggered -- fall is the perfect time for releasing the old.

Explore that deeper place where true change takes root. 

💬 Self-Empathy Beyond the Basics
Learn to bring compassion to all that's underneath feelings and needs — the recurring patterns, the stuck stories, and chronically unmet needs. We'll unpack Self-Empathy as a full practice, not just a step in a process.

🔁 Breaking the Patterns That Keep Repeating
Why do the same dynamics keep showing up — in various relationships and situations? We'll work with the inner patterns that fuel our outer ones, offer empowering lens shifts. 

🔥 Triggers and What They're Really About
A trigger isn't just a problem to manage — it's information. We'll learn to slow down, get curious about what's firing, and meet ourselves with something other than shame.

🧠 Working with Small "t" and Big "T" Trauma
We'll gently explore how NVC intersects with trauma awareness, so you can bring more compassionate and healing lens to your own history without getting swamped by it.

🐺 Your Inner Critic
A noisy self-critic can make it hard to hear needs. We'll work directly with these voices — not to silence them, but to understand and tend what they're trying to protect.

🛑 Over-functioning & Burnout
If you're white-knuckling life certain needs are likely at play. Learn what drives chronic over-functioning and how to replenish before hitting "empty."

Whole-Body Nourishment

🍂 Deep Practice, Real Application
This isn't a lecture or a workshop. Engage in interactive exercises, role-plays, and real-life scenarios to heal, all within a supportive community you'll fall in love with. 

🍂 Skilled Facilitation
Mary and Kristin bring years of NVC experience, clinical training, and deep personal practice to this work. You'll be held with warmth, expertise, and gentle playfulness.

🍂 Time in Nature
The redwoods do something to a person. Hikes, unstructured time, journaling on a quiet trail — it's built into the rhythm of each day.

🍂 Nourishing Meals
Wholesome meals prepared by our onsite chef, with many dietary accommodations available.

Click www.marygoyer.com/fallretreat to register. 

Training Team 

Kristin Masters
NVC Certified Trainer since 2010

Kristin came to NVC in 1994, working with Jean Morrison in Alternatives to Violence programs at San Quentin — and realized its full power when it saved her marriage in 2001. She's been all in ever since.

She brings attunement, depth, and a rare capacity to hold both grief and joy in the same room. One of her particular gifts — and passions — is working at the intersection of grief and gratitude, believing we're meant to carry heartbreak and celebration in community, not alone. Her facilitation draws on many models, with NVC as root and guiding sun.

Kristin creates brave spaces where people feel genuinely seen, whether in learning environments, conflict, or personal healing. She relates to even the most serious of matters with what collaborators describe as "attuned play and creativity" — you'll often find her singing, making art, or listening for what the mycelial network beneath our feet already knows about belonging.

Mary Goyer
NVC Certified Trainer · Holistic Counselor

Mary has spent her career at the intersection of leadership development, trauma healing, and Nonviolent Communication — working with educators, executives, and teams in high-impact organizations who are ready to do the deeper work.

She draws on her training in Marriage & Family Therapy, mindfulness, and somatics to create the conditions where real growth happens: not just skill-building, but the kind of inner shift that changes how people show up in every room they walk into.

Her facilitation style is direct, warm, and participatory — equally at home with a small team navigating a hard season or a large organization building a new culture. She co-owns GROKtheWorld, a training company spreading NVC tools internationally through games, books, and workshop materials.