9-day residential retreat in Nonviolent Communication - Self-Connection as a Path for Collective Liberation
Join us for this residential retreat in Los Angeles, California (August 11-20, 2023) that will help you bring nonviolence and peace into all areas of your life. In this event, you can discover skills that will help you improve the quality of your relationships, deepen your inner peace, and increase your contribution to the world.
This 9-day immersion experience into Nonviolent Communication (NVC) will offer learning sessions, home groups, coaching and feedback from skilled trainers, and a community environment where you can learn and practice the key skills of NVC.
Our team of Certified Trainers will share both the core curriculum of NVC as developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, as well as their own unique applications. We expect a group of approximately 50 to 60 people from different countries, cultural backgrounds, professions and walks of life.
People around the world are using Nonviolent Communication skills to transform conflict, create resiliency in their relationships, and build a world where everyone's needs matter and are met collaboratively.
We will create a dynamic learning laboratory that will show you how to create a more compassionate and peaceful culture in your life at home, at work, and in your community by learning how to:
- Speak from the heart
- Practice deep, non-judgmental listening
- Build self-empowerment from the inside out
| Basic Details |
Format: In-person, 9-day residential retreat
Language: English
Begins: Friday, 11 August 2023 (5:00 pm)
Ends: Sunday, 20 August 2023 (1:00 pm)
Location: Mary and Joseph Retreat Center (Los Angeles, California)
Sponsor: Center for Nonviolent Communication
Organizers: Lori Delaney and Eric Huang, Certified Trainers with the Center for Nonviolent Communication
Steps to Register:
- Fill out the pre-registration form.
- Make your payment (or request financial assistance). Instructions will be provided after you submit the pre-registration form.
- Note: 5 weeks prior to the start of the training, we will send you a form asking you about your dietary preferences, special needs, or other things that will make your experience as successful and meaningful as possible. (Note: We will send you this form).
| Goals of this Training |
The purpose of this training is to give you the opportunity to live the process of Nonviolent Communication in community over an extended period of time, in order to develop the mindsets and practical tools to help you in three areas:
1. Personal and Professional Relationships
- Increase connection and closeness with the people you love.
- Speak in a way that inspires compassion and understanding.
- Initiate difficult conversations with more ease and confidence.
- Remain centered and peaceful when receiving difficult messages.
- Express and receive anger fully, safely and respectfully... yet powerfully.
- Resolve long-standing conflicts and heal painful relationships.
- Parent children from the heart and move beyond power struggles into cooperation.
- Translate criticism, judgments and blame into life-serving messages.
2. Inner Transformation
- Shift patterns of thinking that lead to depression, guilt and shame and that perpetuate pain.
- Transform anger into self-understanding, thereby increasing inner peace.
- Enliven yourself by expressing and receiving gratitude.
- Learn to embody unconditional love.
3. Contribution to others and Social Change
- Share NVC in ways that transmit and model its power to transform and inspire others.
- Create educational systems where students love learning and teachers love teaching.
- Learn to engage in effective, lasting nonviolent social change in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Facilitate meetings and support group decision making in a power-sharing, collaborative, and consensus-based ways.
- Support holistic and human-based workplaces
- Engage with others at work and in the community to foster openness, trust and authenticity.
- Foster restoration and harmony by mediating conflicts and helping to resolve differences among others.
While we will prioritize these three areas in the curriculum, there is also room for co-creation. There will be opportunities for you to request specific topics and applications to support you in living and sharing NVC at work, home, and in the community as well as internally in how you relate to yourself.
| The Training Team |
Each member of the team is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
Trainer: Stephanie Bachmann Mattei (United States)
Assessor and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher
Stephanie Bachmann Mattei is an assessor with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher with the Center for Mindfulness at the University of California, San Diego, and an affiliated teacher with the Right Use of PowerTM Institute. She holds a research degree in philosophy from the Universita’ Degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
Co-author of The Heart of Nonviolent Communication: 25 Keys to Shift from Separation to Connection, Stephanie travels the globe to share her understanding of Nonviolent Communication . She weaves mindfulness into all her teachings, and also offers Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction courses as a path to cultivate the natural human capacity for compassionate presence. Stephanie’s organizational trainings in Right Use of PowerTM raise awareness of the power dynamics intrinsic in all relationships and share a heartfelt approach to power.
Stephanie is the mother of three children, biological and adopted. She loves to stroll on Florida beaches, travel back home to Italy with her family, cook Italian meals with her husband, and pet her cats. Learn more about Stephanie
Trainer: Morris Ervin, Jr. (United States)
Founder/International Educator, Racial Empathy Specialist, Wellness Coach/Mentor, Artist/Storyteller
Morris H. Ervin Jr. founder of Mansa Consulting; is an educator, speaker, coach, and youth development professional. Mr. Ervin has over 20 years experience pioneering social and emotional mentoring programs, leadership seminars, mindfulness retreats and community engagement initiatives. As a Social Studies Teacher in the early 2000’s; Morris created and designed a new innovative African American History Course/Curriculum, challenged the public school system by implementing a unique style of teaching and learning in the classroom called Non-Violent Communication, and established a rigorous, relevant, and meaningful curriculum for an all male classroom in South Central Los Angeles dedicated to keeping young boys off the streets, out of gangs, and away from prisons.
Mansa Consulting provides mentoring programs for youth in public and private settings. Mansa offers a comprehensive approach that nurtures and develops the social and emotional competencies of educators, administrators, principals, council members, executives, directors, managers, employees, etc. Mansa summer camps and enrichment programs use contemplative practices to help young people develop greater empathy, communication skills, improve focus/concentration, enhance creativity, and build the inner resilience to lead successful lives.
Trainer: Camila Reyes (Colombia)
Assessor In Training, Founder of Resuena, Lawyer
Camila Reyes Azcuénaga is committed to love. During her life she has been dedicated to building peace and strengthening trust and mutual support among people in Colombia. She has lead training programs, addressing the development of relational skills that are essential to comply with the humanitarian missions of the Disappeared Persons Search Unit (UBPD) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, among other social and grassroots organizations committed to social change in Colombia.
Camila is the founder of Resuena, an organization set out on a dream to expand the access to Nonviolent Communication in Colombia so that it becomes part of the day-to-day culture. She is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication .
Trainer: Rodger Sorrow (United States)
Assessor
Rodger has been a Certified Trainer since 2001 and an Assessor since 2022 with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and is the founder of Choose Connection. He brings an abundance of knowledge and skills from education, training and experience combined with enthusiasm and compassion.
His leadership experience includes: Director of Treatment for the Drug Rehabilitation Program for the Thirteenth Naval District of the United States Navy, Asst. Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation of the State California, Consultant to Western Washington University's Multi Ethnic Cross Cultural Awareness training of staff for the Dept of Social Health Services for the State of Washington, and District Executive for the Boy Scouts of America where he taught consensus and community building leadership skills for 10 years.
Rodger's style combines humor, laughter and play with learning. He shares his love of the outdoors through a Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education class, 'Nature, Hiking and Self-Healing', a true adventure in self-discovery. Now he is an Assessor in Training with CNVC and founded the SoCal Certification Pod and enjoys accompanying certification candidates in their shared journey of learning, living and sharing NVC. Rodger is available for private sessions with individuals, couples, families, and customized trainings for groups and organizations. Learn more about Rodger.
| The Organizers |
Organizer: Lori DeLaney (United States)
Certified Trainer, PT, MHA, DPT
Lori is a CNVC certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). She earned a doctorate in physical therapy at Western University and a master’s in healthcare administration. She retired after 27 years as the executive director of Tichenor Clinic for Children, a nonprofit serving children with disabilities.
Lori works with healthcare executives, individuals, families, and organizations supporting them through teaching NVC workshops or coaching. For individuals, she offers resonance, creating a safe space where they feel understood and accompanied with warmth and care. For organizations, she focuses on communication skills that build sustainable connection and trust in the workplace and in the community at large.
Lori was elected to serve on the Center for Nonviolent Communication board, a global organization that supports the learning and sharing of NVC, and helps people peacefully and effectively resolve conflicts in personal, organizational, and political settings. She has taught NVC workshops with nonprofits focused on hospice, AIDS, and Autism. As part of the NVC Day One group, she offers presentations monthly online. She is also part of the organizing team for the CNVC Intensive International Training in Los Angeles.
Organizer: Eric Huang (United States)
Certified Trainer
I grew up in a suburb in Minnesota where I was the only non-white person. I never understood why people made fun of the little red haired girl...
I pursued a B.S. in Environmental Engineering as a way to make the world a better place to live. I earned an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and became a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California. Having become a fully qualified Engineer, I decided to leave the business and try High Tech Marketing. I got an MBA. I worked in High Tech Marketing for 25 years on USB.
After I went to an IIT, I deeply involved myself in integrating Nonviolent Communication and I became a Certified CVNC Trainer in 2022.
My current passion is to support bringing in and supporting more candidates in finding pods (weaves/communities) to give/receive co-support in. My hope is to support faster growth and learning, and expand the trainer pool with greater co-support and accountability through community.
| Cost |
The cost of this training includes two components: 1) Tuition; and 2) Room and Board.
1. Tuition (USD): convert to your currency
- $1,989 Early Bird (make your payment through 9-Apr-2023)
- $2,340 Standard (10-Apr-2023 and after)
Additional tuition discounts (you may apply only one of these discounts):
- 10% if you participated in (and paid for) a previous intensive training with CNVC
- 10% if you have been a Supporting Member of CNVC for 6 months or more.
- 15% for registered Certification Candidates
- 25% if you are an active Certified Trainer with CNVC - Note, that there is also a limited number of tuition-free spaces available for Certified Trainers, granted by a committee. For more information, email us at [email protected].
Financial assistance:
Instructions will be provided on how to request Financial assistance after you submit the pre-registration form.
After applying the available discounts, if you are not able to afford the tuition, you can request financial assistance to further reduce your tuition fee - (Note: We offer assistance neither for Room and Board, which is a direct expense for us to the venue, nor for travel expenses). We have a limited amount of financial assistance available and we prioritize people who meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Actively collaborating with others in the NVC network
- Can use what they learn in this training to make an impact such as in education, government, environmental sustainability, equity and inclusion, or with an NGO or community-based organization.
- From a region that has fewer in-person NVC trainings.
- Part of an economic system that offers less access to financial resources.
- Come from a disadvantaged group (race, ethnicity, origin, religion, gender identity, class)
- Willing to search for other sources of financial support such as their workplace, family, or organizations they are involved in (in order to be in partnership with us about finding the resources to host this training while including as many people as possible)
2. Room and Board (USD): convert to your currency
- $1,845 Single Room (private room with private bathroom) - SOLD OUT - you can pay for a Double Room and ask to be put on the waiting list for a Single room
- $1,340 Double Room (you will have one roommate and a shared bathroom)
- $695 Commuter rate (you stay off-site and travel to the retreat center each day)
Notes:
Room and Board prices include your room and all meals throughout the event beginning with dinner the first day and ending with lunch the final day.
Rooms and types of rooms are limited and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis; we encourage you to book your housing as soon as you complete registration and payment for the IIT.
If you choose a double room, you can choose your own roommate or we can assign one to you based upon any preferences you tell us on the registration form.
Commute Daily: We enthusiastically encourage you to stay on-site because our experience is that you will be able to participate more fully and get more value from the experience. However, if you choose to commute, the commuter fee includes lunch and dinner (breakfast is not included) and the daytime use of the facility.
Cancellation Policy:
A. If we cancel:
If we cancel this training, you receive a 100% refund (or if you prefer, you can apply your payment to another CNVC intensive training within 2 years).
B. If you cancel:
Through 12-July-2023, you have two options:
- Transfer 100% of your payment to a future CNVC intensive training within 2 years; or
- Receive a refund minus a nonrefundable $150 tuition deposit
Between 13-July-2023 and 7-Aug-2023, you have two options:
- Transfer 75% of your payment to a future CNVC training (we retain 25%); or
- Receive a 50% refund (we retain 50%).
Beginning 8-Aug-2023 no refunds or transfers are available.
Note: Any refunds due will be issued within 2 weeks after the cancellation.
Regarding Cancellation and Refund policy of room & board, please contact the local organizers.
Finally, before this training begins, we will ask you to make several agreements to create an environment that is safe and supportive for everyone, and that supports you in making choices for your own well being. To preview these agreements, go to this page.
| Location |
Venue:
Mary and Joseph Retreat Center
Address: 5300 Crest Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 United States (Los Angeles area)
- Map (Google Maps)
- Directions (from the venue)
The Mary and Joseph Retreat Center is a year-round, non-profit, interfaith retreat and conference center. At our center you will experience eight acres of scenic beauty located on a hilltop in Palos Verdes
A retreat at the Center offers an opportunity to step away from the busy world and refresh/renew body, mind, and spirit.
If you have sheltered too long at home or have faced a dizzying array of life transitions, you may benefit from a stay of one or a few nights to read, reflect, write, meditate in the garden, or experience the labyrinth walking prayer path.
Commute daily
We strongly invite you to stay on-site at the Mary and Joseph Center for this training, as evenings and mornings can be a place and time for some extra activities, offered content, music, light talks, peaceful walk or cosy rest. However, if you cannot stay on-site and/or live nearby, you can commute daily.
Please note that we ask commuters to participate fully in the program between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm each day.
In the package for the Commuters, we have included two meals per day (lunch and dinner), and two coffee breaks during the day including coffee and tea.
| Travel |
Travel Visa
If you are traveling to the United States from another country, you might need to obtain a visa. Please consult the United States Embassy in your country for details. If you need an invitation letter from us in order to apply for your Visa, email us.
By Air:
The airport that we recommend is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which is 16 miles (35 km) from the venue. This is likely to have the most options; be the most cost-effective; and is the shortest trip to the venue. However, you can also check out other airports in the greater Los Angeles area.
By Car:
Here is the location in Google Maps.
If you do not have your own car and cannot carpool with anyone, there are ridesharing services in this area including Uber and Lyft.
Local Bus Service:
You can get to the Mary and Joseph Center using the local bus system from:
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Amtrak Train Station (downtown Los Angeles)
| Covid-19 Considerations |
We care for your health and safety, whilst valuing choice and freedom. So we are doing our best to form a clear and inclusive health and safety policy and measures, doing anything in our power to organize this safe and legal, live, in-person event. The IIT organizer will research and stay up-to-date on any Covid-related regulations and protocols for California or the United States, if applicable.
CNVC and the organizer will create Covid-related policies and protocols within 4 weeks of the start date for what happens if anyone at the event tests positive for Covid and/or exhibits Covid-related symptoms (including what happens with testing). Covid-19 information pages for more local information:
https://covid19.ca.gov/travel/