All Lives Matter

Empathy Angels in Kaitaia, New Zealand

How Nonviolent Communication is helping people to be heard, and to express for as long as they need.

Hi, I am Jessica White, and I would love to introduce you to the story of Empathy Angels Incorporated in Kaitaia, New Zealand.

As a teenager, I witnessed my brother suffer from depression and multiple suicide attempts. I saw my parents struggle with knowing how to support him. While accompanying my brother to one of his counseling sessions, a seed was sown.

How can people receive this kind of care, human to human, in a way that is accessible and affordable?

When NVC entered my life as a mother, many years later, witnessing the ‘magic of empathy’ sparked the vision for Empathy Angels.

But let me begin with what Empathy Angels is not

The well-being of our session recipients is important to us, so we are clear about what our service is and what it is not.

• We are not mental health professionals.
• We are not a crisis helpline.
• We are not solution providers.

We are simply here to listen and reflect.

A gap that needed filling

Empathy Angels exists so more people feel less alone in the world. With empathic presence, more people experience being heard and understood, and therefore, the gift of knowing – or remembering – that they matter. We see emotional processing, clarity, solutions to challenges, empowerment, and renewed enthusiasm for life as some of the impacts.

Since 2023, Empathy Angels has offered a unique service: free, donation-based, hour-long empathy sessions to anyone in New Zealand over 18.

The service provides an important filling of a gap – that space in between where people don’t have access to valuable emotional support, or perhaps might not be inclined to seek support, and where they may receive support from a professional body of service, like a counselor or psychologist. Empathy Angels is both a preventive measure against mental unwellness and an easily accessible means of ongoing emotional wellness, hygiene, and maintenance.

An empathy unicorn

What sets us apart from other mental health services is that people can self-book sessions via our website, www.empathyangels.co.nz, choosing a time that suits them and an empathy practitioner of their choice. Empathy Angels is not a counseling service. Instead, our trained contractors hold an empathic space where people are helped to identify their feelings and needs and explore ways to move forward positively.

We provide a 12-week intensive empathy training program to team members, with the core of the teachings founded in NVC. Each team member is already familiar with NVC and actively practicing in their lives, before commencing the program.

With the support of Certified Trainer (with the Center for Nonviolent Communication) Irma Jager.

Deeply touched, again and again

We are deeply touched, over and over again, at how receiving regular empathy is transforming people’s lives.

As an example of the scope of Empathy Angels, recipients so far have ranged from a lonely paraplegic with addiction issues, to an isolated rural housewife, to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, to people going through stressful relationship breakups, to challenging workplace relationships, sufferers of depression and terminal illnesses, plus more.

Some recipients on waitlists for counseling services have reported receiving what they needed through Empathy Angels instead. A counselor at a refuge reported a reduction in her waiting list as women used Empathy Angels.

From scratch…

The project came into existence through an intense crowdfunding campaign, where we were successful in rallying up the NZ community. These funds went into training the team, building a professional website, lawyer fees, admin costs and six months of active service in our ‘pilot series’. During that time we provided 200 hours of empathy sessions, where we found marketing was mostly from word of mouth.

To your support

We are seeking now for marketing support, whether it is a social media campaign, SEO’s or other, and are very open to hearing ideas.

We also see Empathy Angels going global! We have the template for how this service can be run with efficiency and effectiveness, and when the time is right, we will be looking into international pathways for EA.

Would you like to contribute?

Please get in touch with the Certified Trainer supporting the project through their page on the CNVC:

Irma Jager Certified Trainer (with the Center for Nonviolent Communication)

If you’d like to know more, follow Empathy Angels on Instagram or visit the website:

Instagram Visit Empathy Angels →

Are you inspired?

Giraffes Around the World was a space created by Marshall Rosenberg to share NVC initiatives within the IITs (International Intensive Trainings offered by CNVC).

Now, we want to expand that spirit to the entire global NVC community through these publications.

Share Your Own NVC Project →

- Written with volunteer support from Renia Bielanska, Martijn Jansen, and Chavi Nieto